| Richard Cromwell Carpenter | |
|---|---|
| Born | 21 October 1812 Russell Square, London. |
| Died | 27 Mar 1855 England |
| Nationality | English |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Known for | Gothic designs |
Richard Cromwell Carpenter (21 October 1812 – 27 March 1855) was an English architect. He is chiefly remembered as an ecclesiastical and tractarian architect working in the Gothic style.
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Richard was the son of Richard (baptized 20 Jul 1788 in St. Giles,[1] Cripplegate and Sophia (Page) Carpenter. His parents married in 1804 in St. James,[2] Clerkenwell, London, England and lived a moderately affluent family life in Russell Square, London.
Richard was born 21 Oct 1812 in Russell Square, London and died 27 Mar 1855. He married Amelia Dollman, who was born about 1818 at Loders, Dorset.
His son Richard Herbert Carpenter, (born 1841 in St. Pancras, London, died 1893),was a Gothic revival ecclesiastical architect.
Richard Cromwell Carpenter was a member of the Cambridge Movement — a group of Tractarians devoted to the return of medieval forms of liturgy and church building within the Church of England. Thus, Carpenter championed the move away from the more classical Palladian-influenced architecture of the 18th century and early 19th century towards the Gothic style which was to typify the Victorian period.
He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1830; his later buildings included St. Paul, Brighton, and St. Mary Magdalen, Munster Square, London.[3]
Carpenter founded the family firm "Carpenter and Slater" with his architectural partner William Slater. The company specialised in church design and restoration. The church of St. Simon & St. Jude at Earl Shilton was designed by Carpenter between 1854–1856, as was St. Paul's Church at Brighton.
One of his most notable works was Lancing College in Sussex (1854). The founder of the college Nathaniel Woodard described Carpenter's great chapel there as an "immemorial creed in stone", and "considered by competent judges to be the finest example of a Gothic Church since the Middle Ages, and in its gracefulness of detail and majesty of proportion is an enduring monument to the genius of Richard Carpenter, its architect".
Carpenter died shortly after submitting grandiose plans for the new Inverness Cathedral; as a consequence his plan was not executed.
Today, perhaps, Carpenter's chief claim to fame is having been the teacher and mentor of the eminent New Zealand architect Benjamin Mountfort, who was one of his pupils. Heavily influenced by Carpenter's form of Gothic revival, Mountfort took many of Carpenter's ideals to New Zealand where he became the country's leading church architect, with over forty churches and other buildings in the Gothic style attributed to him. Many of Mountfort's New Zealand designs, especially those in the province of Canterbury, were openly borrowed from Carpenter.
One of Carpenter's designs, based on his All Saints Church, Brighton (since demolished) was executed in modified form in the United States, where it survives as St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[4] His plans for a "town-church" approved by the Cambridge Camden Society were provided to the Saint Mark's vestry and given to architect John Notman, who altered them to better suit the North American climate and site. The finished church is said to resemble Carpenter's Saint Stephen's, Rochester Row, Vincent Square, Westminster church.[5] A photo essay of the Saint Stephen's, Rochester Row church is viewable at an offsite link.[6]