Do London Taxi Drivers need a bale of hay in their boot to satisfy arcane English laws?

No, that was repealed.

However, there are a still a number of bizarre offences under the 19th Century Metropolitan Police Acts (there were 8 acts of such a name), which include carrying a ladder in the metropolitan area after the hours of darkness.

Such offences have NOT been repealed, but no longer constitute arrestable offences under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE).

No, but that law did exist all the way until 1976! It was to feed the non existent horse. They must still use Charing Cross station as a base and their knowledge consists of a circle of 6 miles using that as the central point.

as a london (black) cab driver .. I agree 100% with

"Dads foundyer scoo'er"

Ps the law about the bale of hay no longer exists

there are a lot of these type of laws... still on the statute books and which have never been repealed.

It is impractical to go through every single law and make sure that it is still valid

and - given the current price of fuel - horse drawn hackney carriages may come back into fashion

the law will never be enforced for a motorised taxicab

That law was repealed in 1976. And if you've ever taken a minicab in London recently you'd find that the driver has to be born within 5 miles of Mumbai railway station.