Doorways

Stair Parts Fig. 252 Doorway at Castle Combe Wiltshire

Stair Parts Fig. 253 Doorway at Oundle Northamptonshire

The tendency being, as already pointed out, towards a plain treatment of the exterior, largely owing to the substitution of sash-windows for mullioned, some amount of relief was imparted by a rich treatment of the principal door, but there came a time when even this modicum of decoration was abandoned, and the exterior of a house was dealt with on purely utilitarian principles, the necessary openings being provided, but devoid of any attempt at ornament. But before this last stage of imaginative poverty, or inertia maybe, was reached, doorways were provided which gave a touch of fancy to an otherwise bald front. The form of circular hood, supported by carved brackets and filled with a fluted cove, usually described as a shell, is a common feature of the work of the end of the seventeenth century twenty years later. An example from Castle Combe, in Wiltshire, is shown in Stair Parts Fig. 252. The centre from which the flutings radiate is here occupied by a small shield of arms. There is a rather plainer rendering of the same idea at Oundle, in Northamptonshire (Stair Parts Fig. 253). Another rich form of hood, with straight outlines, may still be found in out-of-the-way streets and lanes in London, where the necessity for radical changes has not yet arisen. A simple form of this idea is shown in Stair Parts Fig. 257, where one hood covers two contiguous doorways. A treatment very commonly adopted was that shown in the example from York (Stair Parts Fig. 255), where the circular-headed door­way is covered with a pediment supported by pilasters ; the semicircular space over the door is filled with a fanlight divided by thick bars. In this case the bars are simple in form, but they were often curved into curious patterns, surprising in their variety, and suggesting that the designers of the time had no lack of ingenuity had circumstances allowed them to display it. The extinguisher to the left of the doorway should be noted. It is a reminder of the times when there was no public lighting of the streets, when indeed the casual illumination from shops and from houses, private and public, was of the feeblest, and citizens had to find their way home through thoroughfares where no scavenger was employed, by the light of torches, which they extinguished as they entered their houses?

Stair Parts Fig. 254 Doorway in Mark Lane London

Stair Parts Fig. 255 Doorway In York

Stair Parts Fig. 256 Doorway at Norwich

Stair Parts Fig. 258 Doorway at Buckingham Street Strand London

Stair Parts Fig. 259 Doorway at Stationers Hall London

Of the same type as the last is the doorway at No. 33 Mark Lane, London (Stair Parts Fig. 254), but it is far more elaborate, and served as the en­trance to one of the fine private houses which lined Mark Lane, but which now are utilised as offices, if by chance they have escaped the wholesale demolition and rebuilding which expanding com­merce entails. Another good example is to be seen in Buckingham Street, Strand (Stair Parts Fig. 258). Of later date is the double porch at Norwich (Stair Parts Fig. 256), which is simple and dignified, and will so remain as long as the two occupants are of the same mind as to the colour it should be painted. It will be noticed that in all these examples the doorway is the only feature of interest; the surrounding work is quite plain. At the Stationers' Hall, in London (Stair Parts Fig. 259), we get a still later treatment, dating from the year 1800, when Robert Mylne cased the building with stone. The iron standards were probably devised to carry lamps, which shed enough light to help incomers up the steps; but all things are relative, and doubtless, at the time, two oil lamps were considered a brilliant illumination.