G is for Gable: A-Z of Historic Buildings
The gable is a humble architectural feature. A gable describes where a pitched roof stops—usually in a simple triangular shape. Since gables are a geometrical ‘by-product’ of something else (simple pitched roofs), one might expect them to be a relatively boring topic. Yet, like so much in architecture, the ubiquity of the gable has turned it into an object not just to be decorated, but a source of decoration in itself.
Vernacular and not-so vernacular: gable ends near York Minster
Consider the classical pediment. This triangular form, usually at a very shallow pitch, is nothing more than a gable with a fancy name! The reason the pitches of classical pediments are so shallow is a practical one: there is no need for steep roofs in the warm climate of the mediterranean. In the northern Renaissance and later iterations of classical architecture north of the Alps, this presents a small problem. Architects could not get away with shallow gable ends, and needed relatively steep roofs to withstand the elements (including snow). This results in various fig-leaves. Parapets, or entire fake storeys (like those used by Christopher Wren in St Paul’s cathedrals) disguise the real roofline, which may or may not include gables, to give the correct classical air.
The shallow pediment, a classical gable. Silverton Park Stables, Devon. Photograph: author.
Gothic, however, made a virtue out of the steep gable. Quite aptly, early 19th century writers about the Gothic style called this the ‘Pointed’ style. This was a reference to the pointed arches that are fundamental to Gothic, but it also works as a descriptor for the jagged gables that adorn Gothic buildings. The gable is not immediately a decorative device on its own. While Gothic appears around 1140 with the west and east ends of St Denis, the ‘gable motif’ only comes into its own towards the end of the 13th century.
Functional necessity becoming a decorative device is exactly the same process we see in the ‘rival’, classical style (see the entry on Doric). This process is called ‘skeuomorphism’, and it’s the same reason that the ‘save’ icon on your computer is a tiny representation of a floppy disk, even when we haven’t used them for decades and probably never will again.
Lostwithiel church spire, a polygonal structure crowned by miniature gables in granite. Photograph: author.
In the Gothic context, this has also been called ‘akyrism’ by scholar Paul Frankl. This captures the change in meaning when a form—such as a gable—is taken from one context (the roof) and thrown into others. Hence, in the Gothic building, the gable is used as a token for ‘architecture’ itself, and a representation of heaven. Why is architecture heavenly? Because one of the very few discussions of heaven in the Bible (the New Jerusalem which appears in Revelation) is thoroughly architectural:
“And I John saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God [...] and it had a wall great and high, having twelve gates, and in the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.”
No gables, admittedly, but the vision circles around the imagery of buildings. Heaven, therefore, is always imagined as a well-fortified, giant city. And, in the Gothic period, it is beset with pointy gables.
