Taxi!

While I’ve been shifting photos between apps, I’ve come across a few legacy pages from our website. I had the idea of adding them to the blog and gradually deleting them from the site at large. I figured I could add them to the blog when nothing much happened during my days. Like today.

So, here’s the first. It’s a short biographical piece about the guy who invented the hansom cab.

Joseph Aloysius Hansom (1803-1882)

Hansom was born in Micklegate, York on 26 October 1803 into a strongly Roman Catholic family. He was apprenticed in his father’s joinery firm. In 1825, he married Hannah Glover at St Michael-le-Belfry.

His aptitude for design and construction was quickly recognized, and he switched apprenticeships to start as an architect in York and by 1828 he’d set up a partnership with Edward Welch.

The high point of this relationship was also the lowest when in 1831 their designs for the Birmingham Town Hall were accepted and work commenced. The contractors were having problems coming in on budget, so Hansom and Welch stood as surety over the whole project. This proved disastrous, and they declared bankruptcy in 1834. Their partnership was dissolved and they parted company.

1834 proved a big year for Joseph for, as well as his bankruptcy, he registered the design for a Patent Safety Cab. He subsequently sold the patent for £10,000, but the entire amount went to his debtors. Even though his design was changed extensively, it was, has and always will be, called the Hansom Cab.

In 1843, he founded the magazine called The Builder. Renamed Building in 1966, it is still around today. The website is here. Not that Joseph spent a lot of time as editor. No, he had buildings to build rather than write about them.

From 1854 to 1879 he devoted himself to designing and erecting many important buildings including churches, convents and schools for the Roman Catholic Church. Like Pugin, he helped revive the use of spires in 19th century churches and continued Pugin’s Catholic Gothic tradition. His designs have not only been used in the UK but also in Australia and South America.

He died in London on 29 June 1882.

His brother, Charles Francis Hansom (1817-1888), was also a dab hand at designing Catholic churches.

Some other Joseph Hansom buildings include:

• St Mary’s Priory, Fulham Road, London
• Lutterworth Town Hall, Leicestershire
• Dominican Convent at Atherstone, Warwickshire
• Parts of the Benedictine Priory at Princethorpe, Warwickshire
• Non-Conformist Proprietary School (since 1849, Leicester Museum & Art Gallery), Leicester