A bell gable is a decorative gable whose outline has the shape of a bell: the gable curves inwards from the eaves in a hollow sweep, passes into a swelling or straight-rising middle section, and ends in a crowning ornament. The form is characteristic of Dutch town architecture and is best known from the canal houses of Amsterdam; the Dutch word is klokgevel.
Note the ambiguity in English: elsewhere in architecture a “bell gable” (Spanish espadaña) means a gable pierced to hold bells. The Dutch klokgevel is named for its silhouette, not for any bell.
The bell gable is the successor to the neck gable. On a neck gable a rectangular “neck” stands above the eaves line, flanked by separate scrolled claw pieces that fill the step. On a bell gable that transition is made continuous: the claw pieces are absorbed into an unbroken curved outline. The form emerges in the second half of the seventeenth century and reaches its peak in the eighteenth, spreading to smaller towns and to farmhouses.
Characteristics
- Tapering outline — the gable narrows as it rises, with hollow and swelling curves
- Crowning — a pediment, an urn, a curved cornice or an ornament closes the top
- Hoisting beam — nearly always present, since the gable fronts the loft to which goods were hoisted
- Natural stone accents — sandstone bands, keystones and a gable stone bearing a name or image
- Masonry — the curved outline is built in brick and capped, nowadays usually in lead or zinc
Where it applies
- Town houses on canals and streets in historic city centres
- Warehouses with a wide loft opening below the top
- Farmhouses and country houses, in a simpler version
- New build in a historicising style — the form is still used in townscape-defining street frontages
Maintenance points
- The capping is the weak spot — a bell gable has many horizontal and curved upper surfaces where water sits. Nearly all moisture damage starts at worn lead or zinc capping
- Pointing — repoint with a mortar softer than the brick; too hard a cement joint makes the brickwork itself weather away
- Natural stone — sandstone crownings erode; have repairs done by a conservation mason, not with cement patching
- Restraint — check the ties between the gable top and the roof structure; a free-standing gable head is wind-sensitive
- Consent — on a listed building or in a conservation area almost any work to the street elevation needs permission
Related terms
- Neck gable
- Gable scroll
- Gable stone
- Pediment
- Façade
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