Joseph Aloysius Hansom (1803-82)

In Joseph Aloysius Hansom (1803-82), An Unfortunate Genius, biographer Penelope Harris portrays an imaginative, eclectic architect of around two hundred buildings across the British Isles and into France, mainly for Catholic and gentry patrons.

The extraordinary life of this unfortunate genius was punctuated by highs and lows. Described by The Times as ‘a great Triumph’, Birmingham Town Hall was also a disaster. Publicly the Town Hall was a success, but privately it lost him his family home and was overshadowed by bankruptcy. This pattern followed him throughout his life, though it ended in a flurry of spectacular successes. It was the grit and pragmatic work ethic of an archetypal Yorkshireman which saw him through difficult times.

Few, if any, Americans parading in their hansom cabs across Central Park would have known that their mode of transport was designed by an English architect. 

Few French people today realise that the spectacular rose window in the magnificent church of François de Sales was inspired by York Minster in England. 

Of the low points in life were the court case against Edward Pugin; the episode in Scotland when a cargo ship delivering Bath stone blocked a tiny harbour and Hansom had to beg for money to pay for its removal; and when part of Plymouth Cathedral collapsed during construction, nearly causing the death of his brother. Yet, despite everything, one of Hansom’s achievements was extended into the twenty-first century when his ‘Big Library’ stood up to its name, offering its vast collection of 50,000 books and a wealth of archival material to the general public for the first time.