Plate XCIII. Gateways

Plate XCIII. — These examples, drawn from widely differing sources, show trabeated and arcuated forms and combinations of both.

The treatment of porches must be considered from two points of view, first as forming the approach to a building and affording protection from the weather, and secondly in relation to the design of façades in which a porch usually forms the focal point. In towns the projection of porches is determined by the site, width of pavement and other considerations, and many ingenious arrangements have been employed to secure the maximum projection without unduly encroaching upon the public way. Porches are sometimes quite plain, but more usually they have columns — engaged or standing free — and pilasters carrying an entablature and surmounted by a pediment or balustrade. The width and depth of a porch are designed to suit the particular building of which it forms part: short flights of steps add to the distinction of an entrance, serving as introductory features and connecting the focal point to the general lines of the building. Nearly every city in Europe and America shows a variety of treatments peculiar to local practice, but reminiscent in their general lines of the classic models by which their forms were suggested.

There are examples of circular porches which produce grandeur of effect, such as those to the transepts of St. Paul’s Cathedral. The small example in Lincoln’s Inn Fields (Plate XCIV, No. VIII), designed by Sir John Soane, is unique, inasmuch as it preserves the unity of the façade and at the same time masks a dual entrance. Many variations of form based on the square and the circle can be designed to suit special circumstances.

The porches and entrance doorways of London offer a wide field for investigating the diversity of types familiar to the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; and no better way could be suggested for the study of this particular element of design than to sketch one example of each type encountered in the streets of the Metropolis. Paris is also rich in examples of this period, and the eighteenth century in America produced entrances of the portico type which contain novel features drawn from French and English sources. Reference to the treatise by Krafft on the porches and porte-cocheres of Paris will show how the porch was treated by celebrated French architects.