Charles Francis Hansom (27 July 1817 – 30 November 1888) was a prominent Roman Catholic Victorian architect who primarily designed in the Gothic Revival style.
Career He was born to a Roman Catholic family in York. He was the brother of Joseph Aloysius Hansom, architect and creator of the Hansom cab, and father of the architect Edward Joseph Hansom. He practiced in partnership with his brother, Joseph, in London from 1854. This partnership was dissolved in 1859 when Charles established an independent practice in Bath with his son Edward (born 22 October 1842) as an articled clerk. He took his son into partnership in 1867, by which time the practice had moved to Bristol, with a large West Country practice of church and collegiate architecture. In Bristol he took on Benjamin Bucknall as an assistant.
Clifton College
The original Clifton College buildings were all designed by Hansom.
His first design at Clifton was for Big School (then a meeting hall and now the school canteen) and a proposed dining hall. Only the former was actually built and a small extra short wing was added in 1866. This is what now contains the Marshal's office and the new staircase into Big School.
Hansom was called back to the College in the 1870s and asked to design what is now the Percival Library and the open-cloister classrooms. This project was undertaken in two stages and largely completed by 1875, although the Wilson Tower was not built until 1890.
Works (new built) Our Lady the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church, Devizes, Wiltshire, 1865 St Osburg's Church, Coventry, 1845 St Anne's Church, Edge Hill, Liverpool, 1845–46 Our Lady and St Alphonsus Church, Hanley Swan, Worcestershire, 1846Pevsner, 1968, page 175 St David Lewis and St Francis Xavier Church, Usk, Monmouthshire, 1847 St David's Priory Church, Swansea, 1847 Our Lady of Dolours chapel, , Ferndown, Dorset, 1847–51Newman & Pevsner, 1972, page 397 Erdington Abbey, Erdington, Warwickshire, nr. Birmingham, 1848 St Joseph's Church, Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire, 1850.Upton-upon-Severn - St Joseph from Taking Stock, Historic England, retrieved 1 December 2024 St Mary and St John Church, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, 1851 to 1855.Catholic Church of St Mary and St John, Wolverhampton from British Listed Buildings, retrieved 2 February 2016 St Gregory's Roman Catholic Church, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, 1854–77Verey, 1970 vol. 2, page 128 Plymouth Cathedral (with Joseph Hansom), 1856–58 Our Lady of the Angels and St Peter in Chains Church, Stoke-on-Trent, 1857 St Joseph's Church, Weston-super-Mare, 1858 Little Malvern Court, Little Malvern, Worcestershire: west wing, 1860Pevsner, 1968, page 215 Eyre Memorial Chantry, Perrymead Roman Catholic cemetery, Lyncombe, Bath, Somerset, c.1860; altar carved by Boulton of Cheltenham to Hansom's design St John's, Bath, Somerset, 1861–63 Holy Family Roman Catholic Church, Broxwood, Herefordshire, 1863Pevsner, 1963, page 93 Rhydd Court, Guarlford, Worcestershire: chapel, 1863 Malvern College, Worcestershire, 1863–71Pevsner, 1968, pages 167–68 Church of St Mary, Bradenstoke, Wiltshire, 1866 St Pauls, Clifton, 1867 Church of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Souldern, Oxfordshire, 1869–70 Woodchester Park, Nympsfield, Gloucestershire (first scheme) Christ Church, Barton Hill, Bristol, 1883 (demolished 1957) St Joseph and Teresa RC Church, Wells, Somerset, 1877 St Clare's Abbey, Darlington (1856-7)
Remodellings St Stephen's Church, Bristol, 1880s.
References
Sources Clifton College archives