Porches

In the exposed windy climate of the Border uplands it would be natural to expect that porches should be a regular element of protection.  In fact there is no very strong evidence of this historically and the porch is perhaps more a product of the 20th Century added onto existing houses than it is a contemporary of the original house. In this context it can sometimes present a problem to design satisfactorily. One of the difficulties is getting the scale right. A simple transitional shelter covering the front door can look insignificant and if open fronted can hardly be claimed to achieve any useful purpose. At the other extreme many porches move towards being sun rooms or lobby extensions and become too prominent on the front of the house. Another common problem affects the proportions of the porch where a front door has a first floor window directly above it. This restricts the height of the porch roof and may influence the design response.

It is hard to see the point of building this small and ill-proportioned 'shelter' to the front door.

This rendered brick porch with a flat roof offers a poor welcome and detracts from the character of the cottage.

Neither of these previous examples is a very good start, but there is a wide variety of robust, pretty or amusing porches as examples of acceptable design in the National Park. Many of these have a stone base with timber framed side windows and front door. The more robust porches are built of stone full height; the prettier porches include some from the late 19th Century with elaborate timber barge boards and finials; the late 20th century tends to be more severe and some regrettably make no contribution to their houses.

A selection of successful porch extensions.

A more contemporary approach: a robust gable wall to the porch with a glass roof and entrance screen behind.