Building (magazine)

"The Builder" redirects here. For the 2010 film, see The Builder (film). For other uses, see Builder.

Building is one of the United Kingdom’s oldest business-to-business magazines, launched as The Builder in 1843 by Joseph Aloysius Hansom – architect of Birmingham Town Hall and designer of the Hansom Cab.[1] The journal was renamed Building in 1966 as it is still known today. Building is the only UK title to cover the entire building industry. According to ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulations), the magazine's circulation for the year ending in June 2006, was 25,017,[2] but circulation dropped during the recession of the late 2000s to 21,271 for the year July 2009 - June 2010,[3] with the decline continuing in 2011 (the 11 November issue had a print circulation of 15,474).[4] The parent publishing company is UBM Built Environment, a division of UBM.

History

The Builder's first two editors, Hansom and Alfred Bartholomew (1801–45), did not last long in the job. The architect George Godwin (1813–1888) was editor from 1844 to 1883, and turned The Builder "into the most important and successful professional paper of its kind with a readership well beyond the architectural and building world".[5] Godwin apparently wrote most of the content himself, relying on a staff of just five people. His successor, Henry Heathcote Statham (1839–1924), edited the journal from 1883 to 1908.[6]

Rival publication The British Architect and Northern Engineer, founded as The British Architect in 1874, merged with The Builder in 1919,[7] bringing contributions from architectural illustrator Thomas Raffles Davison (1853-1937).

Other contributors to The Builder over the years have included architects such as Robert Dennis Chantrell, Henry Clutton (1819–93), Josiah Conder, James Fergusson, Richard Curtis Green (1875–1960), John Woody Papworth (1820–70), Howard Morley Robertson (1888–1963) and William White[8] They have also included the novelist Hall Caine, the engineer and antiquary G. T. Clark, and the short-lived journalist Charles Chaloner Ogle. Other illustrators have included Arthur Beresford Pite and Worthington George Smith (1835–1917).[8]

The current editor of Building is Sarah Richardson.

Online

Building’s website features industry news, jobs and an archive of over 80,000 articles. In 2006 Building4jobs.co.uk was launched focusing on industry jobs and careers.

Notes

  1. ↑ Harris, Penelope, The Architectural Achievement of Joseph Aloysius Hansom (1803-1882), Designer of the Hansom Cab, Birmingham Town Hall, and Churches of the Catholic Revival, The Edwin Mellen Press, 2010.
  2. ↑ ABC Website
  3. ↑ ABC average net circulation per issue, http://www.ubmbuiltenvironment.com/building/print/ accessed 27 January 2012
  4. ↑ Audience Measurement, Building media pack, http://media.building.co.uk/PDF/Building-Media-Pack.pdf (accessed: 23 January 2013)
  5. ↑ G. B. Smith, ‘Godwin, George (1813–1888)’, rev. Ruth Richardson and Robert Thorne, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 5 Jan 2008
  6. ↑ Alan Powers, ‘Statham, Henry Heathcote (1839–1924)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006, accessed 5 Jan 2008
  7. ↑ Architectural Journals, British Association for Local History - http://www.balh.co.uk/lhn/article.php?file=lhn-vol1iss96-4.xml
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 ODNB

References

External links