Poynter, Ambrose (1796–1886). English architect. He worked (1814–18) in Nash's office, travelled (1819–21) to Italy, Sicily, and the Ionian islands, and established himself in practice in London on his return. Among his works may be mentioned the Hospital and Chapel of St Katharine, Regent's Park, London (1826–7—a Palladian composition in the Tudor Gothic style), and Christ Church, Newmarket Road (1837–9), the Church of St Andrew the Great, St Andrew's Road (1842–3), and St Paul's, Hills Road (1841), all in Cambridge, and all Perp. Both Christ Church and St Paul's were faced in bright red brick with diaper patterns, unusual materials for churches of that date. His Christ Church, Westminster (1841–4), was an early design employing asymmetry, ragstone cladding, and C13 Gothic Revival (bombed 1941, demolished 1954). He also designed several buildings for the National Provincial Bank. He was a founder-member of the Institute of British Architects (1834), and was the author of On the Introduction of Iron in the Construction of Buildings (1842). He had a large and successful practice until he began to lose his eyesight in 1860. His son was Sir Edward John Poynter, Bt. (1836–1919), the distinguished painter, whose Israel in Egypt (1867) was a fine example of his scholarly and painstaking visions of Ancient Egyptian subjects. His grandson, Sir Ambrose Macdonald Poynter, Bt. (1867–1923), was a successful London architect, responsible for the Royal Over-Seas League, Park Place, St. James's (1906–8), and many other works.

Bibliography

Builder et al. (2001);
J. Curl (2005);
A. S. Gray (1985);
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)