Ernest Newton
Encyclopedia
Ernest Newton, FRIBA, ARA (1856–1922) was an English
architect
and President of Royal Institute of British Architects
.
, Kent
. He was educated at Uppingham School
. He married, in 1881, Antoinette Johanna Hoyack, of Rotterdam, and had three sons. He was resident again at Bickley in 1883 and built his own house at Bird in Hand Lane, Bickley in 1884. In the next 20 years he built many houses in the Bickley and Chislehurst area - no two being identical.
from 1873 to 1876, remaining for a further three years as an assistant before commencing private practice on his own account in London in February 1880. He was briefly in partnership with William West Neve
around 1882. A founder member of the Art Workers Guild
in the 1880s. He developed a career designing one-off houses largely in Bromley and Bickley and later moving into ‘high profile’ country home commissions across England.
“He is one of the busiest architects in England and therefore represents the good principles of current thinking about the house in perhaps its most accessible form...” Hermann Muthesius
The English House 1904.
“His eminence as an architect of unexcelled skill in a class of work that constitutes England’s chief or sole claim to supremacy – the capture and apt embodiment of the very spirit of the home...” Obituary, Architect’s Journal; 1 February 1922, p187.
In the 1890s he acted as consulting architect to William Willett
. Newton was President of RIBA
1914-1917. In 1918 he received the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture
. In 1919, he was elected a Royal Academician, and was awarded the CBE
in 1920. His last piece of
work was a war memorial at his former school at Uppingham.
“..a small house is in many ways more difficult to design than a large one, for while every part must be minutely schemed, nothing should be cramped or mean looking, the whole house should be conceived broadly and simply, and with an air of repose, the stamp of home.” A Book of Houses
His son, William Godfrey Newton, (1885–1949), published The Work of Ernest Newton R.A. (1925).
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
and President of Royal Institute of British Architects
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally.-History:...
.
Life
Newton was the son of an estate manager of BickleyBickley
Bickley is an affluent residential area and electoral ward in the London Borough of Bromley, England. It is a suburban development situated 10.4 miles south east of Charing Cross...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. He was educated at Uppingham School
Uppingham School
Uppingham School is a co-educational independent school of the English public school tradition, situated in the small town of Uppingham in Rutland, England...
. He married, in 1881, Antoinette Johanna Hoyack, of Rotterdam, and had three sons. He was resident again at Bickley in 1883 and built his own house at Bird in Hand Lane, Bickley in 1884. In the next 20 years he built many houses in the Bickley and Chislehurst area - no two being identical.
Career
He served his apprenticeship in the office of Richard Norman ShawRichard Norman Shaw
Richard Norman Shaw RA , was an influential Scottish architect from the 1870s to the 1900s, known for his country houses and for commercial buildings.-Life:...
from 1873 to 1876, remaining for a further three years as an assistant before commencing private practice on his own account in London in February 1880. He was briefly in partnership with William West Neve
William West Neve
William West Neve was an English architect in the Arts and Crafts style.-Background:Born in Cranbrook, Kent, Neve was the youngest of seven siblings and the only son of solicitor William Tanner Neve and his spouse Maria West.Neve was educated at Cheltenham College, Gloucestershire and began his...
around 1882. A founder member of the Art Workers Guild
Art Workers Guild
The Art Workers Guild or Art-Workers' Guild is an organisation established in 1884 by a group of British architects associated with the ideas of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The guild promoted the 'unity of all the arts', denying the distinction between fine and applied art...
in the 1880s. He developed a career designing one-off houses largely in Bromley and Bickley and later moving into ‘high profile’ country home commissions across England.
“He is one of the busiest architects in England and therefore represents the good principles of current thinking about the house in perhaps its most accessible form...” Hermann Muthesius
Hermann Muthesius
Adam Gottlieb Hermann Muthesius , known as Hermann Muthesius, was a German architect, author and diplomat, perhaps best known for promoting many of the ideas of the English Arts and Crafts movement within Germany and for his subsequent influence on early pioneers of German architectural modernism...
The English House 1904.
“His eminence as an architect of unexcelled skill in a class of work that constitutes England’s chief or sole claim to supremacy – the capture and apt embodiment of the very spirit of the home...” Obituary, Architect’s Journal; 1 February 1922, p187.
In the 1890s he acted as consulting architect to William Willett
William Willett
William Willett , was an English builder and a tireless promoter of British Summer Time.-Biography:Willett was born in Farnham, Surrey, in the United Kingdom, and educated at the Philological School. After some commercial experience, he entered his father's building business, Willett Building...
. Newton was President of RIBA
Riba
Riba means one of the senses of "usury" . Riba is forbidden in Islamic economic jurisprudence fiqh and considered as a major sin...
1914-1917. In 1918 he received the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture
Royal Gold Medal
The Royal Gold Medal for architecture is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects on behalf of the British monarch, in recognition of an individual's or group's substantial contribution to international architecture....
. In 1919, he was elected a Royal Academician, and was awarded the CBE
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...
in 1920. His last piece of
work was a war memorial at his former school at Uppingham.
Writing
He published Sketches for Country Residences (1882), A Book of Houses (1890 ), and A Book of Country Houses (1903).“..a small house is in many ways more difficult to design than a large one, for while every part must be minutely schemed, nothing should be cramped or mean looking, the whole house should be conceived broadly and simply, and with an air of repose, the stamp of home.” A Book of Houses
His son, William Godfrey Newton, (1885–1949), published The Work of Ernest Newton R.A. (1925).
Works in Kent
- 1881 St John's Parish Rooms, Park Road, Bromley
- 1881 Additions to house in Chislehurst (not known)
- 1882 Alterations to The Firs, Bickley Park Road
- 1882 Alterations to house in Bickley (not known)
- 1883 Sitka, South Wood Hill, Chislehurst
- 1883 Alterations to house #1 in Bickley (not known)
- 1883 St John's Parish Halls, Freelands Grove, Bromley
- 1883 Alterations to house #2 in Bickley (not known)
- 1884 Lyndhurst, 8 Bird in Hand lane, Bickley
- 1884 Stables and Cottage at Bullers Wood,Chislehurst
- 1884 House at Beckenham (not known)
- 1885 Redcourt, 5 Hawthorne Road, Bickley
- 1885 Beechcroft, 19 Bickley Road, Bickley
- 1885 House at Bickley (not known)
- 1886 Alterations to Sunnydale, Bickley Park Road
- 1886 Alterations to Nutwood, Bickley Park Road
- 1887 Parish Room at St George's Church, Bickley Park Road
- 1887 Various works at Chislehurst
- 1888 Mission Church, Widmore, Bromley
- 1888 Works at Willow Grove, Chislehurst
- 1888 Alterations to Swallowfield, Southlands Grove, Bickley
- 1888 Ashton, Mead Road,Chislehurst
- 1888 Alterations to Lingdale, Oldfield Road, Bickley
- 1889 Remodelling of Bullers Wood, Logs Hill, Chislehurst
- 1889 Elm Bank, Camden Park Road, Chislehurst
- 1889 Alterations to Campville, Bickley (not known)
- 1889 Alterations to Brodsworth, Beckenham (not known
- 1890 Alterations to Farrants, Bickley Park Road, Bickley
- 1890 Alterations to Camden Wood, Chislehurst (not known)
- 1890 Alterations to Cowrie, Bickley (not known)
- 1891 St Luke's Institute, Raglan Road, Bromley Common
- 1891 238 Southlands Road, Bickley
- 1891 Stables at Beechcroft, 17 Bickley Road, Bickley
- 1892 Stables and Cowsheds, Bickley Hall, Bickley Park Road
- 1893 3 Grasmere Road, Bromley
- 1893 St Barnabas Vicarage, Beckenham (not known)
- 1893 Alterations to Bickley Vicarage, Bickley Park Road
- 1893 Alterations to Amesbury House, Page Heath Lane, Bickley
- 1893 Billiard Room at Camden Wood, Chislehurst
- 1894 Alterations to Oakdell, 5 Pageheath Lane, Bickley
- 1896 Alterations to a House at West Chislehurst (not known)
- 1896 Type House for William Willett (88 Camden Park Road?)
- 1898 Martins Bank, 181 - 183 High Street, Bromley
- 1898 Shop, 179 High Street, Bromley
- 1898 The Royal Bell Hotel, High Street Bromley
- 1898 Alterations to Farrants, Bickley Park Road
- 1898 Alterations to Calderwood, St Pauls Cray Road, Chislehurst
- 1898 Electricity Works, Walters Yard, Bromley (demolished)
- 1899 Molescroft, Widmore, Bromley
- 1899 Alterations to Bromley College, London Road, Bromley
- 1899 Alterations to Hayes Grove, Prestons Road, Hayes
- 1899 House A, Bickley Park Estate, Hawthorne Rd, Bickley (demol.)
- 1899 House B, Bickley Park Estate, Hawthorne Rd, Bickley (demol.)
- 1899 House C, Bickley Park Estate, Hawthorne Rd, Bickley (demol.)
- 1890 House at Chislehurst (Derwent House, Camden Park Road?)
- 1901 Alterations to The George Inn, Hayes Street, Hayes
- 1901 Alterations to Glebe House, George Lane, Hayes (demolished)
- 1901 Alterations to Martins Bank, Summer Hill, Chislehurst
- 1901 Alterations to Elmhurst, Bickley Park Road, Bickley
- 1902 Nos 21 and 23 Page Heath Lane, Bickley
- 1902 Alterations to Bickley hall, Chislehurst Rd, Bickley (demol.)
- 1902 Billiard Room at Camden Hill, Chislehurst (not known)
- 1902 18 Edward Road, Sundridge Park, Bromley
- 1902 House D, Bickley Park Estate (35 Chislehurst Road)
- 1903 Alterations to Bromley Palace, Widmore Road, Bromley
- 1903 Alterations to Hartfield, Gates Green Road, Hayes (demol.)
- 1904 House E, Bickley Park Estate (36 Chislehurst Road)
- 1904 House F, Bickley Park Estate (38 Chislehurst Road)
- 1904 House at Chislehurst for H P Henty (not known)
- 1904 23 Garden Road, Sundridge Park, Bromley
- 1904 Spire, St Georges Church, Bickley Park Road, Bickley
- 1904 St Mary's Church Buildings, Farwig Lane, Bromley (demol)
- 1905 House G, Bickley Park Estate (not known)
- 1905 House H, Bickley Park Estate (not known)
- 1905 House I, Bickley Park Estate (not known)
- 1905 Alterations to Hawthorne, Hawthorne Road, Bickley
- 1906 Stables for House F, Bickley Park Estate (not known)
- 1909 Chancel Additions, St George's Church, Bickley (demol.)
- 1909 Alterations to Glebe House, Hayes (demol.)
- 1910 Alterations to Avonhurst, 76 Camden Park Road, Chislehurst
- 1911 Swimming Bath at Amesbury School, Page Heath Lane, Bickley
- 1920 Alterations to Bromley Palace, Widmore Road, Bromley