Gateway to Barber's Almshouses

The Gateway to Barber's Almshouses was built in 1899 by architects WG Osborne and Langham and Cole. It features Wealden sandstone ashlar dressings and a metal gate.

The gateway is situated at the main entrance courtyard of the Barber's Almshouses, facing Elms Avenue. Brick dwarf walls extend from either side along the property boundary.

On the south-west elevation, the gateway has a central arched opening adorned with moulded bands and Gibbs-style large voussoirs, including a central keystone. Tuscan-style pilasters flank the opening, rising from the plinth to the impost, and are topped by vase-shaped pilasters with decorative panels and Tuscan capitals. The entablature features a broken and open segmental pediment with dentil mouldings on the cornice and an obelisk finial. The tympanum contains a frieze with ornamental foliate and swag mouldings, mythical creatures, and a central female face above a dedication stone. The stone reads: “THESE ALMSHOUSES WERE BUILT ENDOWED AND DEDICATED TO THE POOR OF THE PARISH OF ST GEORGE RAMSGATE, BY THE WILL OF FRANCES BARBER FOR MANY YEARS A RESIDENT IN THAT TOWN, IN ORDER TO PERPETUATE THE MEMORY OF HER HUSBAND FRANCIS CHARLES BARDER AND HER ONLY SON WILLIAM CHARLES BARBER.”

Two consoles are placed on either side of the gateway, while the rear elevation facing the almshouses features plain panels without ornamental mouldings in the tympanum. The ornamental black-painted metal gate is fixed into the stonework with hinges at the top and bottom. It has a symmetrical design with alternating diamond and scrolled bars in the upper panel, cross bars and scrolled framing in the middle panel, and alternating waved and straight bars in the lower panel, crowned by scrolled detailing from both gates.