The Golden Gates

The Golden Gates is an entrance arch and tower built between 1834 and 1838 by Sir Charles Barry for the 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne. Constructed from ashlar stone in the Italianate style, it features a monumental design with a balustraded triple gateway. The gateway is flanked by a tall campanile tower on the right and a small Italianate lantern on the left. There are screen walls on each side, with one containing a 20th-century lodge behind it.

The central arched gateway has a console keystone and an impost band that extends over plain square-headed pedestrian gates. Ionic columns are attached to either side of the arch, which is topped with a richly carved dentil cornice and a pulvinated frieze inscribed with "PAX INTRANTIBUS ET HABITANTIBUS." Above the pedestrian gates are armorial roundels, and the top balustrade is adorned with piers and urns.

To the left of the main gateway, the flanking section exhibits incised rustication, with mouldings that continue from the central gateway and a shallow pyramid-roofed lantern featuring arched openings on each side. The main tower on the right consists of three stages. The lower stage has mouldings that wrap around it, with an arched-head window breaking through a band that has incised rustication on either side. Above this band, only the corners are rusticated. The high second stage features rusticated angles and a pedimented window on each face, with a sill course below.

A moulded cornice separates the second stage from the top stage belvedere, which has paired arched openings supported by columns set in depth. The arches are adorned with keystones, moulded arches, and imposts, while the angle piers are panelled. The bracket cornice is decorated with diamond-faced blocks between the brackets and is topped with a shallow pyramid roof. The screen walls on either side are divided by rusticated piers and end at rusticated corniced piers with ball finials. The gates are ornate ironwork. The rear of the structure is similar but features two eroded sculpted roundels by M.L. Watson from 1847 in place of the armorial plaques. This is a significant example of 19th-century Italianate architecture, with designs archived in the British Architectural Library in London.