Wallace-Hadrill wrote that this was the entrance of stairs leading from street to an upper apartment.
See Wallace-Hadrill, A., 1994. Houses and Society in Pompeii and Herculaneum. New Jersey: Princeton U.P. (p.206).
According to Pesando and Guidobaldi, this room to the left of the entrance corridor, with a window that still preserved its grating, was possibly the room for the “porter” (cella ostiaria), and in it were the wooden stairs to the upper floor; when the upper rooms onto the front roadway were developed and were rented out, a separate entrance at no. 28 was created.
See Pesando, F. and Guidobaldi, M.P. (2006). Pompei, Oplontis, Ercolano, Stabiae. Editori Laterza, (p.370)
VI.28 Herculaneum, September 2015. Entrance doorway, on east side of Cardo III Superiore.
VI.28 on left, Herculaneum. July 2009.
Entrance doorways, looking south towards
VI.29 doorway. Photo courtesy of Sera Baker.
VI.28 Herculaneum, September 2015. Entrance doorway.
VI.28/29, Herculaneum. May 2018. Looking east
towards window. Photo courtesy of Buzz Ferebee.
VI.28/29, Herculaneum. May 2018. Looking
west from interior of room towards window. Photo courtesy of Buzz Ferebee.
VI.28 Herculaneum, on right, October 2014. Entrance doorway, with steps to upper floor at VI.27, on left. Photo courtesy of Michael Binns.
VI.28 Herculaneum, June
2011.
Looking through
entrance doorway towards site of stairs to upper floor. Photo courtesy of Sera
Baker.
VI.28 Herculaneum, September 2015. Looking towards north-east corner.
The line of the wooden stairs going up can be seen in the painted plaster, on the left.
VI.28 Herculaneum, September 2015. East wall.
VI.28 Herculaneum, August 2021.
Looking
towards east wall with doorway to atrium, and south wall, on right. Photo
courtesy of Robert Hanson.
VI.28 Herculaneum, September 2019. Looking towards south-east corner.
The east wall has holes for support beams for an upper floor, and doorway into atrium.
Photo
courtesy of Klaus Heese.
VI.28 Herculaneum, September 2015. Looking towards south-east corner and doorway to atrium of VI. 29.