Sir Ernest George (13 June 1839 – 8 December 1922) was a British architect, landscape and architectural watercolourist, and etcher.

Life and work

Born in London, Ernest George began his architectural training in 1856, under Samuel Hewitt, coupled with studies at the

Royal Academy Schools The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

1857–59. After a short period in the office of Allen Boulnois, he went on a sketching tour of France and Germany, which inspired him to the architectural style that would make him famous."The Architecture of Sir Ernest George"
''Times Higher Education'', 7 July 2011. Linked 2017-02-06 On his return to London, he set up an architectural practice in 1861 with Thomas Vaughan. They had their breakthrough in 1869, when George was contacted by the tea and spice importer and Member of Parliament Henry Peek (son of James Peek, who started the biscuit business Peak Frean & Co). He was about to buy the village of Rousdon in Devon, and wanted George to build him a large mansion house south of the village, plus several other buildings. This complex became eventually known as the Rousdon Estate, and from 1930 to 1998 the George-designed mansion house served as the private boarding school Allhallows College. Vaughan suddenly died on 2 March 1875 aged 39, forcing George to find another partner. He chose the young Harold Peto, mainly because of the Peto family's vast contact network in the building industry. During this partnership, George designed houses in London for the Cadogan Estate in Chelsea and

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

. In 1881 they designed Stoodleigh Court at Tiverton for Thomas Carew. In 1891 they designed an extension to West Dean House for

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States, he is considered to be one of the leading thinkers of the late 19th c ...

, creating the Oak Room, now Oak Hall, in West Dean College. In 1891, Harold Peto decided to leave London for health reasons, and to devote more time to his interests in garden design, at which point George made a former pupil, Alfred Bowman Yeates, his new partner. In New Zealand, which he never visited, he designed the Theomin family house Olveston, in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

, which was built in 1904–07. He was also responsible for the current

Southwark Bridge Southwark Bridge ( ) is an arch bridge in London, for traffic linking the district of Southwark and the City of London, City across the River Thames. Besides when others are closed for temporary repairs, it has the least traffic of the List of ...

(1921), and the Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice in London's Postman's Park. He served as president of the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...

from 1908 to 1910. Ernest George's London office was nicknamed "The Eton of architects", and the 79 pupils included

Herbert Baker Sir Herbert Baker (9 June 1862 – 4 February 1946) was an English architect remembered as the dominant force in South African architecture for two decades, and a major designer of some of New Delhi's most notable government structures. He was ...

, Guy Dawber, John Bradshaw Gass,

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...

and Ethel Charles. Ethel Charles was the first woman to be elected a member of the

. George died in London at 71 Palace Court, Bayswater, in 1922, aged 83, and was cremated at

Golders Green Crematorium Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and is one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £136,000 in 2021), ...

, of which he and Alfred Yeates had been the architects, and where the Ernest George

Columbarium A columbarium (; pl. columbaria), also called a cinerarium, is a structure for the reverential and usually public storage of funerary urns holding cremated remains of the dead. The term comes from the Latin ''columba'' (dove) and originally solel ...

is named for him. George's residence at 17 Bartholomew Street,

London Borough of Southwark The London Borough of Southwark ( ) in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council ...

, is commemorated with a Southwark Council

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

Buildings by Ernest George

* Rousdon House (for Sir Henry Peek of Peek Freans; became Allhallows School in 1938) Rousdon, Devon (1870) * 1–8 Collingham Gardens, Earls Court, London (1881–84) * Shiplake College,

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town status in the United Kingdom, town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Thames, in the South Oxfordshire district, in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, Berkshire, Reading, west of M ...

, 1890 * 4 & 6 Thornlaw Road, West Norwood, London (1882) * Ossington Coffee Tavern, Newark on Trent (1882) * Shockerwick House, Bathford,

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, including wings, lodge and "The Clock House" (1896) * Cawston Manor Water Tower Cawston, Norfolk (1897) designed further by architect John Bennett RIBA of Southwold into residence for David & Jennifer Forster. *

, London (1902) * Eynsham Hall, Oxfordshire (1904–08) * Olveston,

, New Zealand, for David Theomin (1903) * Ruckley Grange, Tong, Shropshire (1904) * Bushridge Hall,

Godalming Godalming ( ) is a market town and civil parish in southwest Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, at the confluence of the Rivers Wey and Ock. The civil parish covers and includes the settl ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

(1906) * Crathorne Hall,

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

(1906–09) * Putteridge Bury, Lilley,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

(1911) *

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

, London (1911)

Painting

*George painted in England, Belgium, Holland, France, Germany and Italy. *An album with pencil-sketches of townscapes in Ostend, Belgium, is kept in the Kunstmuseum aan Zee there N. Hostyn, Een album met Oostendse schetsen van Sir Ernest George. Een uitzonderlijk iconografisch document voor Oostende, stend on. Oostendse Heem- en Geschiedkundige Kring De Plate

008 008, OO8, O08, or 0O8 may refer to: * "008", a fictional 00 Agent In Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and the derived films, the 00 Section of MI6 is considered the secret service's elite. A 00 (pronounced "Double O") is a field agent who ho ...

References

External links

The Lychgate, West Wickham Church
(1864 watercolour)

(etching, c. 1880)
San Gimignano
(1882 watercolour)
The Rousdon Estate website
{{DEFAULTSORT:George, Ernest 1839 births 1922 deaths 19th-century English male artists 19th-century English painters 20th-century English male artists 20th-century English painters Architects from London English landscape painters English male painters English watercolourists Golders Green Crematorium Knights Bachelor Presidents of the Royal Institute of British Architects Recipients of the Royal Gold Medal Royal Academicians

Life and work

Buildings by Ernest George

Painting

Further reading

References

External links