#The Gateway# is interesting, as a surviving fragment of the Early-English period, supposed by some authorities to mark the site of the original west front, of which they regard it as having formed part--the entrance to the south aisle--which was allowed to stand, after the grand central porch, and a corresponding doorway on the northern side, were destroyed with the nave. More probable is the conjecture that it was merely the entrance to the monastic enclosure, turned to account as a ready-made structure when the work at the church was the reverse of constructive, as it seems too large and too high for a mere doorway at the end of an aisle, besides being rather too far from the church to agree with its supposed dimensions. The modern iron gate is surmounted by a gilded cross and the name of the church on a framework in the tympanum. The arch is acutely pointed, and moulded in four orders, with a tooth ornament in the hollows, and is in tolerably good condition; but the supporting shafts have been superseded by a wall on each side, with the circular moulded capitals (much decayed) above it, the bases either being destroyed or buried in the earth beneath. The gateway is in a line with the houses facing the public square, which touch it on both sides, and are carried on without interruption above the opening.
When the floor of the church was lowered to its original level in 1863-6, the present approach to it was made by an excavation through the churchyard, which covered the site of the nave, and is now walled off on the northern side of the passage.
The gravestones are of comparatively modern date, and of no special interest. A few of them have been left against the wall on the right, where there is something of more antiquarian value in a collection of _débris_ from the old building, containing the bases of some of the Early-English columns in their original place, but hopelessly mutilated.
The existing #West Front# dates from the time when the nave was destroyed. In 1893 a great improvement was made in its appearance by refacing the wall with flint and stone, and otherwise ornamenting the surface, to bring it into uniformity with the porch which was then built at that end of the church. There are now three round-headed recesses in the central portion of the wall, those at the extremities containing narrow windows; a band of chequered stonework is carried across the space beneath them, and a small circular window inserted above. It may be mentioned here that the pointed arch has generally been adopted in the new work, to distinguish it from the old, but the characteristic massiveness and predominant scale of the original has been preserved throughout the restoration. A practical illustration of these principles will be seen in #The Porch#, as an ingenious compromise between the older and newer types of architecture which are brought together in the main fabric. It is built of a combination of flint and Portland stone, like the wall-front just described, with which it is connected by a small circular tower and an oblong extension on the northern side. The two storeys of which it consists are divided externally by a band of chequered diaper. The shallow arch of the doorway is simply moulded and very slightly pointed, suggesting a transition from the Romanesque to the Early-English style, while the Perpendicular is represented in the battlements on the roof and the octagonal turret on the southern side. In a niche above the apex of the arch, and on a bracket displaying the Priory arms, upheld by two angels, stands a figure of Rahere, the founder, with his left hand raised in benediction, and in his right a model of the church. The design of this little edifice is taken from one of the ancient seals (see Illustration in the Appendix), and shows the central tower, with a round turret at each end, and a small building (probably the original Lady Chapel) projecting from the east. Rahere's features are copied from the effigy on his tomb, which is believed to be an authentic portrait. The figure occupies the central position in the higher storey, with three arched recesses on either side (the middle one in each case containing a window), diminishing in height outwards, in harmony with the lines of the roof. The ceiling within the porch is groined in four divisions; and the "priest's chamber" above it makes a convenient private room for the rector of the parish. This new porch bears its own date (1893), and the date of the foundation, seven hundred and seventy years earlier.[1]