Singular or plural

seagull There being no taxi(s), he had to walk to the hotel. In the sentence above, which is more natural whether or not there is the plural "s" after "taxi."

Both are acceptable, but if I had to choose one I would choose the singular 'taxi'. After all, he only needs one taxi.

I understand.
Thank you so much indeed.

There being no taxi(s), he had to walk to the hotel.


With or without an 's', I find the first phrase correct but unnatural. More natural English is
eg There were no taxis, so he had to walk to the hotel.

Understood.
Thank you so much, Clive.

How about this one? -- There was no taxi, so he had to walk to the hotel.

Fine.

"There being "is suggesting an expectation. -ing form may replace an entire sentence, and its usage here is actually suggesting that the writer did not want to use "there was no" for some reason.
"There being" suggests a state. In this case, the state that was expected, the opposite state, is a taxi to be there. For example, we are on the taxi station, but it is at the moment empty, or

Thank you so much for your informative answer, Aperisic.
I've learned a lot.

seagullThere being no taxi(s), he had to walk to the hotel.

There being... is not common in informal spoken English, but I know at least one fictional person who would no doubt have preferred it to Because there were no taxis... There was a British satirical sitcom called Yes, Minister in the 1980s and one of the characters was Sir Humphre

Thank you so much indeed, Cool Breeze. I'm sorry for this late reply.
Thanks to your interesting and informative answer, I think I get a better understanding of this structure.

seagullThank you so much indeed, Cool Breeze. I'm sorry for this late reply.

You're welcome! I didn't really expect an answer at all.

CB