Looking at Buildings

Glossary

Pleasance: (Scots): Close or walled garden.
Plinth: Projecting courses at the foot of a wall or column, generally cut back (chamfered) or moulded at the top.
Pocked tooling: Hammer-dressed stonework with a pocked appearance, characteristic of Irish masonry from the 14th to the 16th centuries.
Podium: A continuous raised platform supporting a building; or a large block of two or three storeys beneath a multi-storey block of smaller area.
Point block: A multi-storey block with flats fanning out from a central core of lifts, staircases etc.
Pointing: Exposed mortar jointing of masonry or brickwork. It can be flush or recessed. Bag-rubbed pointing is flush at the edges and gently recessed in the middle. Ribbon pointing has joints formed with a trowel so that they stand out. Tuck pointing: with a narrow central channel filled with finer, whiter mortar.
Poppyhead: Carved ornament of leaves and flowers as a termination or finial on top of a bench end or stall.
Portal frame: A single-storey frame used from the 20th century, comprising two uprights rigidly connected to a beam or pair of rafters, particularly to support a roof.
Portcullis: Gate constructed to rise and fall in vertical grooves at the entry to a castle.
Porte coch: (French, lit. gate for coaches): Porch large enough to admit wheeled vehicles.