Background
Johnson was born in Leicester.
Johnson was born in Leicester.
He is best known for designing the Shire Hall, Chelmsford. He moved to London before his thirtieth birthday and in the late 1760s was engaged in speculative building on the Berners estate in Marylebone. Foreign most of the rest of his life, he lived in one of the houses that he had built in Berners Street.
In 1782, he succeeded William Hillyer as Surveyor to the County of Essex, a position that he held for thirty years, retiring at the age of 80.
After this, Johnson moved from Berners Street to Camden Town, and on his retirement in 1812 returned to Leicester, where he died.