Joseph Hansom

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Joseph Hansom

Joseph Aloysius Hansom (born October 26, 1803 in York , † June 29, 1882 in London ) was an English architect of historicism . Numerous public buildings designed by him, especially Catholic churches, have been preserved. However, his fame in the English-speaking world is based almost exclusively on a special type of carriage he developed , the Hansom Cab , which is firmly associated with the idea of Victorian England.

Life

At the age of 13, Hansom began an apprenticeship with his father, who was a master carpenter , but switched to the Phillips architectural office in York the following year . In 1820 he became an employee there and created his first own designs. At the same time he completed his education in evening school courses . In 1825 he married Hannah Glover and went to Halifax as an assistant to the architect Oates . It was there that he first came into contact with Gothic architecture. In 1828 he became a partner of Edward Welch and built churches with him in Liverpool , Hull and on the Isle of Man . In 1831 he was commissioned with Welch to plan and build the Birmingham City Hall , which he completed in 1833. In doing so, however, poor financial planning led him to bankruptcy. He found a job as managing director of the bustling entrepreneur Dempster Hemming until he squandered his large fortune. Finally, Hansom managed to set up his own architecture office.

It was Hemming who prompted Hansom to patent his Safety Cab in 1834 , the one-horse , two-seater carriage with a low-lying cabin and greatly enlarged wheels, which was later named after him. However, it found distribution in a further developed form that had little to do with Hansom's design. Through carelessness and mishap, the Hansom Cab only fetched £ 300 for its inventor.

In 1843, Hansom founded the architecture magazine The Builder , which became very important and is still published today (since 1966 under the title Building ). Here, too, he lacked equity and had to be content with a small salary from the publisher.

His activity now shifted more and more to the building of Catholic churches, which became necessary in many places due to Catholic emancipation and the immigration of Irish industrial workers. He preferred neo-Gothic forms. From 1854 to 1859 he worked in business partnership with his younger brother Charles Francis Hansom , then until 1861 with his eldest son Henry John Hansom . The then closed partnership with Edward Welby Pugin lasted only a year and ended in a falling out. For the last ten years until Hansom's retirement in 1879, his second son Joseph Stanislaus Hansom was a partner in his company. He lived with his wife in the London borough of Fulham . He was buried on July 3, 1882 in the local Catholic parish church of St. Thomas of Canterbury .

Major works

St. Walburgh, Preston, with the third tallest church tower in Great Britain

Of the approximately 200 structures designed by Hansom, the most important are:

literature

Web links

Commons : Joseph Hansom  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Hansom, Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hansom, Joseph Aloysius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English architect of historicism
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1803
PLACE OF BIRTH York
DATE OF DEATH June 29, 1882
Place of death London