The Nineveh Porch:

  This small building is a major rediscovery in the history of nineteenth-century architecture. Built at the time that Assyrian sculpture was first being presented to the British Museum and in Nineveh And Its Remains, it represents the response of Lady Charlotte Guest, a wealthy British citizen with inside access to both the Ninevite discoveries and their discoverer, her cousin Henry Layard, through whom she acquired    a magnificent collection of Assyrian sculpture.

  While the official debate over the Assyrian sculptures in the British Museum focused  on their place in the chain of art, their aesthetic value, if any, and their importance as historical documents, Lady Charlotte shared the popular perception of these monuments as illustrations of Bible times.

  In consequence, Lady Charlotte presented her collection  of Ninevite art not in a classical architectural context, as in the British Museum, nor in an anti-Classical architectural context, as in Nineveh Court in the Crystal Palace, but rather in a post-Classical Gothic context, an architectural style with strong Christian associations.