Gable (architecture)

“ The north and south parapets are horizontal, but those to the east and west rise to the centre so as to form a very low-pitched gable, a very unusual outline in such a building, and for which there is nothing in the arrangement of the roof to account. The exterior of the keep is very free from ornament. The only exception is a string-392course about 12 feet above the base on the west wall, which has on its under side a billet moulding of great delicacy. ”

“ XLVIII. In the Cumberland and border cottages the door is generally protected by two pieces of slate arranged in a gable, giving the purest possible type of the first form. In elaborate architecture such a projection hardly ever occurs, and in large architecture cannot with safety occur, without brackets; but by cutting away the greater part of the projection, we shall arrive at the idea of a plain gabled cornice, of which a perfect example will be found in Plate VII. of the folio series. With this first complete form we may associate the rude, single, projecting, penthouse roof ”

“ The wall is built very thick so that enormous jambs, carrying a vast moulded arch, can be employed. The head of the door is filled with sculpture, which is also lavishly used in the sides and arch, and over the whole rises an ornamental gable, frequently profusely adorned with tracery and [Pg 83] sculpture, its sides being richly decorated by crockets or similar ornaments, and crowned by a sculptured terminal or finial. ”

“ The side gables give variety to the roof, and light to the chambers, and add to the finish of its appearance; while the sharp arched double window in the front gable adds character to the design.
The deep veranda in front covers three-quarters of its surface in length, and in the symmetry of its roof, and airiness of its columns, with their light braces, 229 give it a style of completeness; and if creeping vines or climbing shrubs be trained upon them, will produce an effect altogether rural and beautiful. ”

“ The east gable has a sett-off at the level of what was apparently the original height (Fig. 1545) . There are two doors on the south side, that in the chancel being lintelled and having a hole for a sliding bar, while the other in the nave is round arched, as is also a door in the opposite wall. These doors have all beaded mouldings. There is only one window on the north side. On the south side the windows are of various sizes, and are scattered about in an irregular way. Two of them, which are placed high in the wall, are checked for outside shutters; the others have all simple splays. ”

“ A study of one of the corner pavilions (Fig. 106) will show how, not only in the gables but in the whole treatment, the foreign influence is predominant. The simplicity of the native type is entirely wanting. There are no plain surfaces of any extent; the columns are broken by a projecting band; the pedestals on which they stand are adorned with panels of double projection; not only are the corner piers of the parapet crowned with an obelisk, but the pediment at the top of each gable carries a small statue on a pedestal: everything is done to add to the picturesqueness and richness of effect. ”

“ Two or three small mouldings run along the upper edge of the corona, which has in addition, over each slope of the gable, a gutter-moulding or cymatium. The cornices along the horizontal edges of the roof have instead of the cymatium a row of antefixæ, ornaments of terra-cotta or marble placed opposite the foot of each tile-ridge of the roofing. The enclosed triangular field of the gable, called the tympanum, was in the larger monuments adorned with sculptured groups resting on the shelf formed by the horizontal cornice below. ”

“ Here the towers are the true terminations of the aisles, and the three internal divisions are marked externally by continuous, though shallow buttresses. There is a low central portal and two lesser portals, all gathered into the central compartment, and consequently all opening into the nave. This central compartment is crowned by a gable in conformity with the form of the roof, and it is pierced by two tiers of five lancets. The design, as a whole, is therefore appropriate, and in this respect offers a rare exception among early buildings in England. ”

“ In the north-west and south-east angles of the arms there are introduced two entrance lobbies, giving access to the four arms and to staircases, leading to a gallery in each arm. The space on the ground floor below the galleries is low, and is lighted by two square windows in the end wall of each arm (Fig. 1561) , with moulded jambs and lintel, while each upper floor or gallery is lighted by means of{584} a large pointed window in the gable, filled with plain intersecting tracery, with mullions and transoms. ”

“ Some of the horizontal divisions are often strongly marked, especially in the lower part of the building, where in early examples there is sometimes in addition to the plinth, or base of the wall, an arcade or a band of sculpture running across the entire front (e.g. east front of Lincoln Cathedral) . The central gable is always occupied by a large window—or in early buildings a group of windows—sometimes two storeys in height. A great side window usually occurs at the end of each aisle. ”

“ Thus the gable tops run in two directions, like the letter T, and give a beautiful effect to the outside and inside of the main roof. Further, by the omission of an ornamental entablature and of a line of screens and a second tier of columns, troublesome labour is saved and the total cost greatly diminished. On the other hand, the carrying of the columns themselves in unbroken height directly up to the beams that support the main roof, seems to add an air of sumptuousness and dignity to the work. ”

“ Moulding of Doorway.
and widely splayed, and the arches are cut out of single stones. The tower finishes with a saddle-backed roof and crow-stepped gables, the whole being of the original construction.
From indications remaining against the north wall of the tower, there has doubtless been a high window in the west gable of the church.
Fig. 1598.—Font and Top Stone of Gable.
The whole structure appears to be of the sixteenth century. The top stone of the east gable and a simple circular font (Fig. 1598) are lying near the ruin.
STOW CHURCH, Mid-Lothian. ”

“ Part of the west gable survives for a height of about 10 or 12 feet, with a small square-headed window. Nothing else is left but grass-covered ruins and fallen pieces of masonry.
LOUDOUN CHURCH, Galston, Ayrshire. [244]
This was originally a structure of the first pointed period, but it is now in a state of complete ruin, except the choir, which has been fitted up in the seventeenth century as a burial vault.
The west gable stands nearly entire, but the side walls are completely demolished, except at the choir (Fig. 1566) . The building is externally
Fig. ”

“ Gr. κεφαλή, and refers to the forking timbers at the end of a roof. The gable corresponds to the pediment in classic buildings where the roof was of low pitch. If the roof is carried across on the top of the wall so that the purlins project beyond its face, they are masked or hidden by a " barge board," but as a rule the roof butts up against the back of the wall which is raised so as to form a parapet. In the middle ages the gable end was invariably parallel to the roof and was crowned by coping stones properly weathered on both sides to throw off the rain. ”

“ In France there are rarely gable ends, in Germany they are not only the chief characteristic feature of the main front, but are introduced in the side elevations in the shape of immense dormers with two or three storeys and rising the full height of the roof, as in the castle at Hämelschenburg near Hameln. Throughout Germany, therefore, the gable end and the dormer gable became the chief features on which they lavished all their ornamental designs, the main walls of the building being as a rule either in plain masonry, rubble masonry with stucco facing, or brick and stone. ”

“ The mullioned windows of many lights were framed in pilasters furnished with their appropriate pedestals, bases, and caps; at every floor level a great entablature with architrave, ornamental frieze, and far projecting cornice made the circuit of the building: above all rose the gables, often straight of outline, but not infrequently fashioned into graceful curves; from gable to gable extended a balustraded parapet; at due intervals along the walls projected great chimney-stacks carrying slender shafts separated from each other by narrow spaces of daylight. ”

“ From the time of Roman and Greek antiquity, perhaps, so large a gable-group has not been seen, being seventy-two feet in length. The inside is one hundred and sixty-eight feet by forty-eight, and fifty-three feet to the roof, and may be considered a rare gem. The floor is of polished white, yellow, and black marble mosaic; one draws on felt overshoes to slip and slide over the surface. The roof is of gilded bronze plates, with three plate-glass windows to admit the light, the crossbeams of sky blue, and stars of gold, with full-sized figures of gods and heroes. ”

“ A deep gable is evidently the best for throwing off rain; even a low gable being better than a high arch. Flat roofs, therefore, may only be used when the nature of the building renders the gable unsightly; as when there is not room for it between the stories; or when the object is rather shade than protection from rain, as often in verandahs and balconies. But for general service the gable is the proper and natural form, and may be taken as representative of the rest. Then this gable may either project unsupported from the wall, a, Fig. ”

“ It is much more difficult to spoil the interior than the exterior; it must of necessity be simple and uniform, and it admits of less attempt at enrichment with such crockets and pinnacles as cover the exterior. The south transept front, which is the most conspicuous portion of the new work finished, is, I think, thoroughly unsatisfactory. The crocketed gable over the great window, repeated again just above up the roof gable, is perhaps the most unhappy repetition of a leading line that could have been hit upon. ”

“ The gable, with its large rose-window, cusped lights, turrets, buttresses, and lancet windows, all make a harmonious architectural picture. The south porch is considered rather small and has been much restored. Dog-tooth moulding is plentiful along the arches. It also occurs on the windows and gable.
Pinnacles and weird gargoyles decorate the Nave, divided into seven bays by tall buttresses.
The north side of the Minster is far less ornate than the south. ”

“ DOORWAY, SOUTH TRANSEPT.
In the windows of the second stage the abacus of the capitals is continued as a string from window to window. The two flanking buttresses have been crowned at some later period with gables ending in finials, and the great gable is pierced with a Perpendicular window of three lights, which has three transoms in the head, the mullions carried up to the archivolt, and a dripstone ending in foliage. The sides of the gable here do not take an upward turn to meet the corners, and there are no flanking turrets. ”

“ Owing to the height of the buildings these coloured roofs are always so far removed from the eye of the spectator that they never lose their artistic appearance. The gables are of wood or metal, and curve upwards at the ends into a peculiar ornament, which is so common in civil as well as religious architecture as to cause much speculation as to its meaning. ”

“ Ruskin was probably right in this estimate at least,—"The central gable is the most exquisite piece of pure flamboyant style extant." At the present day this west front is undergoing such restoration and general repair that the entire gable, rose window, and part of the flanking towers are completely covered with a most hideous array of scaffolding.
The central spire as it exists to-day, in reality an abomination of abominations, is naturally enough admired by all when first viewed from afar. ”

“ The gable roof is simpler in construction, and was the type most generally used in the colonies; but our diagram suggests how it cramps free movement within the attic. The gambrel roof, although calling for more involved construction, affords more head room. Apart from the space consideration, the gambrel roof is rather cheerful and attractive when seen from the outside, a factor that may have been responsible for the 18th-century fad for them. ”

“ The silver-grey stone, cut, if it came from this neighbourhood at all, from some now forgotten quarry, has the fine, close-grained texture of antique marble. The great northern gable is almost a classic pediment. The horizontal lines of plinth and ridge and cornice are kept unbroken, the roof of sea-grey slates being pitched less angularly than is usual in this rainy clime. A welcome contrast, the Prior thought it, to the sort of architectural nightmare he came from. He found the structure already more than half- [153] way up, the low squat pillars ready for their capitals. ”

“ The frames of the entire windows are later work, having no attachment or bonding to the jambs, as is clearly manifested to the eye." These windows rise as high as the top of those of the triforium. Above is a round-headed window with a slightly smaller arch on each side, with cushion capitals. The gable itself is designedly made to resemble one of the gables of the west front. It is surmounted by a cross, and bordered by the wavy ornament; it has a rose window; and beneath is an arcade of five round-headed trefoiled arches supported by shafts, having at the inner wall three lancet windows. ”