The chaotic life of Building founder and architect Joseph Aloysius Hansom

By Tom Lowe2023-08-29T05:38:00

To celebrate Building’s 180th anniversary, Tom Lowe talks to historian Penelope Harris ahead of the publication of her biography of the magazine’s founder

It was a chance encounter with a street sign that inspired the new biography of Building magazine founder Joseph Aloysius Hansom. Its author, historian Penelope Harris, was driving into the Leicestershire market town of Hinckley to take up a new job when the sign caught her eye.

Hinckley has a long history. It was founded in Anglo-Saxon times and was mentioned in the 11th-century Domesday Book. It was also close to the site of the Battle of Bosworth, which ended the Wars of the Roses, and a key battleground of the 17th-century English Civil War.

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