Joseph Aloysius Hansom (October 26, 1803 - June 29 1882) was an English architect who invented the Hansom cab.
Hansom was born in Micklegate , York and baptised as Josephus Aloysius Handsom(e), to a Roman Catholic family. He became an apprentice as a joiner following his father. He married Hannah Glover in 1825 at St Michael-le-Belfrey in York.
Showing an aptitude for designing and construction, he was taken from his father's joinery shop and apprenticed to an architect in York, and, by 1831 his designs, in partnership with Edward Welch , for the Birmingham Town Hall were accepted and followed--to his financial undoing, as he had become bond for the builders. He also designed Mount St Mary College near Sheffield.
Afterwards he moved to manage an estate at Caldecote Hall . On December 23, 1834 he registered the design of a Patent Safety Cab, on the suggestion of his employer, and subsequently sold the patent to a company for £10,000, which, however, owing to the company's financial difficulties, was never paid. The first Hansom Cab travelled down Hinckley's Coventry Road in 1835. The cab was exported worldwide.
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