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Pyramid Gatehouse And Flanking Wings

Henderskelfe, GB

Pyramid Gatehouse And Flanking Wings

The Pyramid Gate, also known as the Pyramid Gatehouse, is a historic building at Castle Howard, in North Yorkshire, in England. The gate was designed by John Vanbrugh in 1716, and was completed in 1719. It forms part of a sequence of structures on the main route to the house at Castle Howard, and is

north of the Carrmire Gate and south of The Obelisk. It is a variation on a design which Vanbrugh unsuccessfully proposed for gates at Kings Weston House. Vaughan Hart describes its crowning pyramid as "evok[ing] the idea of death at the very entrance to the estate". Walls were added either side of the gatehouse by Thomas Robinson in 1756. The left wing suffered a fire in 1923, and its interior was later entirely replaced. At the time, the building was used as a hotel. The main house was badly damaged during the Second World War, and so in 1949 George Howard, Baron Howard of Henderskelfe, temporarily moved into the gatehouse. The building was grade I listed in 1954. The gate is built of limestone on a chamfered plinth, and has a pyramidal stone slate roof surmounted by a pyramid. It contains a round arch with an impost band on consoles, and a band, above which is a coat of arms...

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