From 1836, Waring was educated at a branch of University College, London, then existing at Bristol, where he was also taught watercolour-drawing by Samuel Jackson.
His health being delicate and his income ample, he spent the winter of 1843–4 in Italy ‘to improve himself in art and to become a painter.’ On returning to England he was a draughtsman successively in the offices of Ambrose Poynter, Laing of Birkenhead, Sir Robert Smirke (1846), and David Alfred Mocatta (1847).
For this the only remuneration received by the authors was a moderate payment for lithographing the sixty fine folio plates.
Singly he produced ‘Designs for Civic Architecture,’ formed on a style of his own, possessing merit and a considerable share of beauty.
In conjunction with Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt, he in 1854 wrote four architectural guide-books to the courts of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham.
In connection with this exhibition he published in three volumes ‘Masterpieces of Industrial Art and Sculpture,’ 1862, consisting of three hundred coloured plates, the description of which in English and French he himself wrote.
During a succeeding tour in Italy he sent a series of notes to the ‘Architect.’ In February 1871 the American Institute of Architects elected him an honorary member, but he obtained little practice.
At the age of twenty Waring was an enthusiastic admirer of Swedenborg's doctrines; later he somewhat changed his opinions, and in his ‘Record of Thoughts on Religious, Political, Social, and Personal Subjects’ (2 vols.
1873), he advanced an eccentric claim to write under ‘special divine inspiration’ and the power of making prophecies concerning political events.
‘Stone Monuments, Tumuli, and Ornaments of Remote Ages, with Remarks on the Early Architecture of Ireland and Scotland,’ 1870.