Newton was the son of an estate manager of Bickley, 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.
Career
He served his apprenticeship in the office of Richard Norman Shaw 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 MuthesiusThe 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.
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 No. 1 in Bickley (not known)
1883 St John's Parish Halls, Freelands Grove, Bromley
1883 Alterations to house No. 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