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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Sundus Abdi

Driven to succeed: meet London’s youngest black-cab driver

Bahrain Mujagata smiles as he sits behind the wheel of his black cab
Bahrain Mujagata completed the Knowledge in just two years and five months. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

“I’ve got T-shirts older than you!” The joke draws laughter from a table of black-cab drivers gathered in the Astral cafe on Regency Place in Westminster. Around the table, cabbies swap stories accumulated over decades behind the wheel: picking up the England World Cup hero Geoff Hurst, ferrying senior politicians around London, and navigating the capital long before smartphones and satnavs existed.

At just 21, Bahrain Mujagata is an anomaly among them. In late 2025, he became London’s youngest licensed black-cab driver after completing the Knowledge – the notoriously demanding test of the capital’s streets – in just two years and five months. Most candidates take three to four years to qualify, according to Transport for London.

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