The west side of the Fountain Court comprises the apartments, with a number of bay windows and window seats facing west and north across the park. The Grand Staircase divides the apartments; restored between 2010 and 2011, the staircase would originally have had a substantial porch, similar to the one that survives in the Pitched Stone Court, and would have been a centre-piece of the Fountain Court. Although examples of such straight-flight staircases can be found in other late-medieval buildings, the architectural historian John Newman considers the Grand Staircase had "a grandeur hard to parallel in 15th century England." The apartments to the west of the staircase are more complex than the others, designed to create somewhat greater privacy, and overlooked the gardens to the west of the castle. On the south side of the court is the South Gate, the original entrance to the castle prior to the 1460s reconstruction. The fan vaulted gatehouse closely resembles the contemporary cloisters at Gloucester Cathedral, but by the 16th century had been converted to the entrance to the bowling green in the terrace beyond.