What Is a Pergola?

A pergola is a garden structure made of upright posts supporting an open framework of beams overhead. Traditionally the roof is an open grid of timber rafters that filters the sun and carries climbing plants rather than keeping the rain off. The modern pergola keeps the posts and frame and adds a roof that opens and closes, glass sides that slide away, and heating and lighting, so it can be used for most of the year.

Pergola meaning and origin

The word comes from the Latin pergula, a projecting eave or a covered walkway. Pergolas were the shaded walks of Italian Renaissance gardens, timber or stone columns carrying vines, and they came into English gardens in the same role: a structure for climbing plants that made a shaded route or a seat. That heritage is why the classic pergola has no solid roof. Its purpose was dappled shade and greenery, not shelter.

The types of pergola

Traditional timber pergola

Posts and cross-beams in hardwood or softwood, freestanding or fixed against the house, with an open lattice overhead. The cheapest to build and the most dependent on planting to do its job. It gives light shade in summer and none of the shelter a British autumn needs.

Aluminium pergola with a fixed roof

Powder-coated aluminium posts and beams, with a fixed roof of glass or polycarbonate panels. Permanent shelter from rain, clean lines and no maintenance, but no control over sun and heat beyond blinds or planting.

Louvred pergola

The modern standard. Aluminium posts carry a roof of rotating louvres that turn to let the sun through, angle to shade it, and close flat to make a rain-tight roof, usually driven by a motor and often by a rain sensor. Built-in guttering takes the water away through the posts. This is what most people now mean by a pergola for the garden, and it is the type our pergola glass rooms are built around.

Pergola glass room

A louvred or fixed-roof pergola with sliding glass panels or screens on some or all sides, often called a pergola with roof and sides. Open in summer, closed against wind and rain in the shoulder seasons, and with heating and lighting fitted it is used well into winter. It is not a conservatory, because it is not insulated to the standard of a habitable room and it is not attached to the house in the same way, but it does most of what a glass room does at a fraction of the building work.

Pergola vs gazebo

A gazebo is a freestanding structure with a solid roof, usually octagonal or square, and often with a railing or low wall. It is a building in the garden. A pergola is a frame: open overhead in the traditional form, and even with a louvred roof it reads as posts and beams rather than a small house. Pergolas are more often attached to the house and more often used as an extension of the patio; gazebos sit apart as a destination.

Pergola vs veranda

A veranda is a roofed structure attached to the house along one wall, with a fixed roof, normally glass, and open sides. The roof is permanent and the shelter is constant. A pergola may be attached or freestanding and its roof, in the modern form, opens and closes. The choice between them is usually about control: a veranda gives permanent cover and a pergola gives adjustable cover. Both can take sliding glass sides, and once they do the two types converge into the same thing, a glass room with a roof that is either fixed or louvred.

Pergola vs arbour and pavilion

• Arbour: a small, often arched frame over a bench or path, usually for climbing plants. A pergola is larger and covers a seating or dining area.

• Pavilion: a freestanding garden building with a solid roof, open or partly open at the sides, closer to a gazebo than a pergola.

Pergola roof options

Open rafters give shade and planting; fixed glass gives permanent shelter; louvres control both sun and rain; retractable fabric sits in between. Our guide to pergola roof options compares them, and our Weinor pergolas page shows the louvred system we specify.

Pergola questions, answered

What is the point of a pergola?

Shade, and a defined outdoor space. A traditional pergola filters the sun and carries plants; a modern louvred pergola adds shelter from rain and, with sides and heating, makes the patio usable for most of the year. Our guide to how to decorate a pergola covers furnishing one.

Does a pergola need planning permission?

In England, a freestanding pergola is treated as an outbuilding and usually needs no permission if it stays within the limits: no higher than 2.5 metres within 2 metres of a boundary, not forward of the front of the house, and not covering more than half the garden. An attached pergola is judged like an extension. Listed buildings need consent, and in a conservation area an outbuilding to the side of the house needs permission. Our guide to pergola planning permission sets out the full rules.

Is a louvred pergola waterproof?

Closed, yes. The louvres seal flat and the water runs to integrated gutters in the frame and down the posts.

Talk to our design team

If you are choosing between a pergola, a veranda and a glass room, talk to us about your project and we will show you what each would look like on your patio.