An arcade is a series of arches supported on columns or piers, either free-standing or attached to a wall. A free-standing arcade may form a covered walkway, as in a cloister or loggia, while a blind arcade is applied to the face of a wall purely as decoration, with no openings behind the arches.
Arcades have been a fundamental element of architecture since Roman times, and they feature prominently in Romanesque and Gothic churches, where arcades divide the nave from the aisles. Norman blind arcading with round arches and zigzag ornament survives on many English churches, while the Renaissance revived classical arcades for courtyards, loggias and public buildings. In the nineteenth century the term also came to describe covered shopping streets lined with shops, such as the Burlington Arcade in London. Arcading is also used as a decorative motif on furniture, especially on the panels and friezes of sixteenth and seventeenth-century oak chests, court cupboards and chairs, where carved round arches frame flowers or geometric ornament. In architectural salvage, carved stone arches, columns and capitals from demolished arcades are valued for gardens and interiors, where they bring a sense of permanence and age.
