A bay-and-gable is a distinct architectural

Architectural style

Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...

 style of house that is ubiquitous in the older parts of Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The most prominent feature is the large bay window

Bay window

A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room, either square or polygonal in plan. The angles most commonly used on the inside corners of the bay are 90, 135 and 150 degrees. Bay windows are often associated with Victorian architecture...

 that usually covers more than half of the front of the house, surmounted by a gable

Gable

A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...

 roof. The classic bay and gable is a red brick semi-detached

Semi-detached

Semi-detached housing consists of pairs of houses built side by side as units sharing a party wall and usually in such a way that each house's layout is a mirror image of its twin...

 structure that is two and a half storeys tall, though many variations also exist. It was one of the most common forms of house built in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Toronto. The older parts of the city such as Cabbagetown

Cabbagetown, Toronto

Cabbagetown is a neighbourhood located on the east side of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It comprises "the largest continuous area of preserved Victorian housing in all of North America", according to the Cabbagetown Preservation Association....

 and Little Italy

Little Italy, Toronto

Little Italy, sometimes referred to as College Street West, is a district in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is well known for its numerous Italian Canadian restaurants and businesses. There is also a significant Latin American and Portuguese community in the area...

 are still home to many hundreds of examples.

The style was well suited to the layout of the city and the tastes of Torontonians. Old Toronto was laid out with very long and narrow lots, usually only 13 to 20 feet (6.1 m) wide. The tall narrow bay-and-gable house was ideally suited to this environment. High ceilings and large windows allowed light to still reach the depths of the house. Toronto architectural tastes in this era were dominated by the various Victorian

Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

 Revival styles, especially Gothic Revival

Gothic Revival architecture in Canada

Gothic Revival architecture in Canada is an historically influential style, with many prominent examples. The Gothic Revival was imported to Canada from Britain and the United States in the early nineteenth century, and rose to become the most popular style for major projects throughout the late...

. The steep roofs and sharp vertical lines of the bay-and-gable imitated the Gothic style in a way that was affordable to middle class

Middle class

The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....

 homeowners. For homeowners who wanted more ornament the gables and large windows both provided areas that could be elaborately decorated. Stained glass

Stained glass

The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...

 windows are common in bay-and-gables, as are bargeboard

Bargeboard

Bargeboard is a board fastened to the projecting gables of a roof to give them strength and to mask, hide and protect the otherwise exposed end of the horizontal timbers or purlins of the roof to which they were attached...

s running along the gables and terracotta tiles with ornamental motifs and designs. In some cases, only the front of the house would be given a brick façade

Facade

A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

 in order to save money, with the back and sides done in siding.

The style was also very flexible. The typical bay-and-gable house was made out of brick, but ones made completely out of wood were also easily produced. Bay-and-gable houses were most often built as semi-detached

Semi-detached

Semi-detached housing consists of pairs of houses built side by side as units sharing a party wall and usually in such a way that each house's layout is a mirror image of its twin...

 buildings, but the basic design could also easily be modified into a stand alone or row house format and many examples of both exist in Toronto. There are many variations on the bay-and-gable found in Toronto. One of the most common simplifications on the style is to replace the bay window with a flat wall.

The style faded as modernism

Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...

 was embraced in the years after the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. It still remains popular among Toronto residents. In older areas of the city several new infill projects have been built in the bay-and-gable style. In the northeastern suburb of Markham

Markham, Ontario

Markham is a town in the Regional Municipality of York, located within the Greater Toronto Area of Southern Ontario, Canada. The population was 261,573 at the 2006 Canadian census...

, there are subdivisions filled with bay-and-gable houses modified to incorporate a two car garage.