Robert Dennis Chantrell
Minster and Parish Church of Saint Peter-at-Leeds
Born	(1793-01-14)14 January 1793 Newington, Southwark, London.
Died	4 January 1872(1872-01-04) (aged 78) Norwood, London
Occupation	Architect
Buildings	Leeds Minster

Robert Dennis Chantrell (14 January 1793 – 4 January 1872) was an English church architect, best-known today for designing Leeds Parish Church, now Leeds Minster.

Chantrell was born in Newington, Southwark, London.^[1] His father, Robert (1765-1840) had interests in a range of businesses that took the family to Europe, settling in Bruges in 1808.^[1] He was a pupil in the office of Sir John Soane from 1807 to 1814, where he learnt the principles of Classical architecture.^[1] In 1816, Chantrell moved to Halifax where he assisted the architect William Bradley.^[1] In March 1819, Chantrell won the competition to build the Leeds Public Baths and he opened a practice in Leeds.^[1]

At the beginning of his career Chantrell designed a string of classical buildings. The Public Baths were single storey with double columns flanking the main door.^[2] In May 1819, Chantrell won the competition to design a new hall for the Leeds Philosophical Society, also in a classical design.^[2] He went on to design the South Market which included a Neo-classical temple.^[2] However, by 1825 he fell out of favour with prominent townsmen.^[2]

Surviving buildings by Chantrell include:

• alterations to the Leeds Library, including galleries (1821–36)
• completion of Rudding Park House (c.1824)
• alterations to St Mary-the-Virgin, Hunslet (1826)
• St Stephen's Church, Kirkstall (1828–9)
• Emmanuel Church, Lockwood (1828–29)
• All Saints, Netherthong (1828–9)
• St Peter, Morley (1829–30)
• St Matthew, Holbeck (1829–32)
• partial reconstruction of All Saints, Pontefract (1832–33)
• St Peter-at-Leeds or Leeds Parish Church (now Leeds Minster) (1837–41)
• Christ Church, Skipton (1837–39)
• Christ Church, Lothersdale (1838)
• St Wilfred, Pool-in-Wharfedale (1839)
• the steeple of Holy Trinity, Boar Lane, Leeds (1839)
• the neo-roman tower of the St. Salvator's Cathedral in Bruges, (Belgium) (1839)
• the neo-Norman bellcote of St John the Baptist, Adel (1839)
• St David, Holmbridge (1839–40)
• St Lucius, Farnley Tyas (1840)
• Holy Trinity, Batley Carr (1841–42)
• St Paul, Shadwell (1841–42)
• St Mary, Honley (1843)
• Holy Trinity, Leven (1843)
• St Paul, Denholme Gate (1843–46, with Thomas Shaw)
• All Saints, Roberttown (1844–46, with Thomas Shaw)
• Holy Trinity Church, Cowling (1845)
• St Mary the Virgin's Church, Middleton, Leeds (1846–52)
• the tower of St Paul, Halifax (1847)
• St Andrew, Keighley (1847–48)
• St Paul, Armitage Bridge (1848)
• St George's, New Mills (1829–30)

Surviving buildings restored by Chantrell include:

• St Catherine, Barmby Moor, East Yorkshire (1852)^[3][4]

• 
  Minster and Parish Church of Saint Peter-at-Leeds
• 
  Upper part of the tower by Chantrell of the St. Salvator's Cathedral in Bruges, (Belgium)
• 
  Church of St Wilfrid in Pool-in-Wharfedale

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Dennis Chantrell.

• Howard COLVIN, Biographical Dictionary of English Architects 1660–1840, John Murray, London, 1954
• Nikolaus PEVSNER & Enid RADCLIFFE Yorkshire: The West Riding, 1959, 2nd edition 1967, Penguin Books, London
• Derek LINSTRUM, West Yorkshire Architects and Architecture, Lund Humphries Publishers, London, 1979, ISBN 0-85331-410-1
• Andries VAN DEN ABEELE & Christopher WEBSTER, Architect Robert D. Chantrell en de kathedraal van Brugge, 1987, Bruges
• Christopher WEBSTER, R.D. Chantrell, architect: his life and work in Leeds 1818–1847, Leeds, 1992
• Christopher WEBSTER & Andries VAN DEN ABEELE, A portentous mass of bastard romanesque frippery: an early ecclesiological export, Leeds, 1999.
• Susan WRATHMELL, & John MINNIS, Leeds, Pevsner Architectural Guides, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2005, ISBN 0-300-10736-6
• Christopher WEBSTER, R. D. Chantrell (1793–1872) and the architecture of a lost generation, Reading, Spire Books, 2010, ISBN 978-1-904965-22-0.