Born in London, Ernest George began his architectural training in 1856, under
Samuel Hewitt, coupled with studies at the
Royal Academy Schools 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. 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. 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. In 1881 they designed Stoodleigh Court at
Tiverton for Thomas Carew. In 1891 they designed an extension to
West Dean House for
William James, 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, which was built in 1904–07. He was also responsible for the current
Southwark Bridge (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 from 1908 to 1910. Ernest George's London office was nicknamed "The
Eton of architects", and the 79 pupils included
Herbert Baker,
Guy Dawber,
John Bradshaw Gass,
Edwin Lutyens and
Ethel Charles. Ethel Charles was the first woman to be elected a member of the
Royal Institute of British Architects. George died in London at 71 Palace Court, Bayswater, in 1922, aged 83, and was cremated at
Golders Green Crematorium, of which he and Alfred Yeates had been the architects, and where the Ernest George
Columbarium is named for him. George's residence at 17 Bartholomew Street,
London Borough of Southwark, is commemorated with a Southwark Council
blue plaque. ==Buildings by Ernest George==