Richard Cromwell Carpenter was born in Clerkenwell, London, England on 21 October 1812 and and was the son of Richard Carpenter (1779–1849) a cattleman who went on to be a successful property developer. From 1827 or 1828 he was articled to John Blyth (1806-1878) in London. By 1830 he appeared to be practising as an architect. In that year he exhibited a design entitled 'Transepts for a Cathedral' at the Royal Academy in London. He again exhibited designs at the Royal Academy over the next three years.
Probably Carpenter's first formal commission came in 1832 when the Rev. Thomas Mortimer asked him to design a church "in the early English style" in Islington that would hold 3,000. Carpenter subsequently became known primarily as an ecclesiastical architect, although his early work from the late 1830s and early 1840s was on housing development projects in London, including, Lonsdale Square, Islington (1839-42) and Great Percy Street nearby at about the same time, for his father.
The influence of Pugin and the Gothic Revival architects is evident in much of his work.
In 1863 he took his son, Richard Herbert Carpenter (1841-1893) into partnership.
Carpenter was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (FRIBA.) in 1853 and died at his home 40 Upper Bedford Place, London on 27 March 1855
The first church built to a design by Carpenter was St Stephen the Martyr, Birmingham (c.1841-44). Notable among his later church commissions were St James' Church, Nutl;ey, East Sussex (1842-44); St John the Baptist, Cookham Dean, Berkshire (1843-49); St Andrew's Church, Bordesley, Birmingham (1843–46); St James' Church, Birmingham (1844-46); Church of St. Paul, Brighton, Sussex (1845-48); St John the Baptist's Church, Buckland, Tasmania, Australia (1846-48); All Saints Church, Brighton, East Sussex (1847-52); St Andrew's Church, Monkton Wyld, Wootton Fitzpaine, Dorset (1848); Holy Innocents' Church, Rossmore, New South Wales, Australia (1848-50); St. Peter the Great, Chichester, West Sussex (1848-52); St. James the Less, Stubbings, Berkshire (1849-50); St. Mary Magdalene, Munster Square, London (1849-52); St. John the Evangelist, Bovey Tracey, Devon (1852-53); and Christ Church, Milton-next-Gravesend, Kent (1854-56). He also restored 36 churches, as well as St Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, Chichester Cathedral, and Sherborne Abbey. In addition he designed 13 schools, 7 parsonages, and made alterations to two country houses - Campden House in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire (1846), and Bedgebury Park, Kilndown, Kent (1854-56).
Anson, Peter F. Fashions in church furnishings, 1840–1940. London: Studio Vista, 2nd edtion, 1965 pp. 75-78
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914. Compiled by Antonia Brodie, et al. Volume 1: A-K. London; New York: British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects/Continuum, 2001
Elliott, John. ‘R. C. Carpenter (1812-55): the Anglicans’ Pugin’ in Episodes in the Gothic Revival: Six Church Architects, edited by Christopher Webster. Reading: Spire Books Ltd., 2011 pp. 133-162
Elliott, John P. The Architectural Works of Richard Cromwell Carpenter (1812-55), William Slater (1819-72) and Richard Herbert Carpenter (1841-93). Ph.D. thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London, 1996
‘Obituary’. The Builder vol. 13, 7 April 1855 p.166
‘Obituary’. The Ecclesiologist vol. 16, 1855 pp. 137-141