Looking at Buildings

Glossary

Pitched masonry: Laid on the diagonal, often alternately with opposing courses (pitched and counterpitched, also called herringbone).
Pit prison: (Scots): Sunk chamber with access from above through a hatch.
Place bricks: The poorer kind of bricks, used on internal or concealed construction. Compare stock bricks.
Platband: Flat plain horizontal course or moulding between storeys.
Plate: Longitudinal member of a timber-framed building, set square to the ground.
Plate girder: A girder of I-section, made from iron or steel plates.
Plate rail: On a railway, an L-section rail for plain unflanged wheels. Compare edge rail.
Plate tracery: The earliest form of tracery, introduced c. 1200, in which shapes are cut through solid masonry.
Plateway: Early railway using plate rails, i.e. rails of L-section (compare edge rails).
Platt: (Scots): Platform, doorstep or landing.