A fence of steel or iron bars - does it have a name?

Question

I need a word or words for fences which invoke a feeling of 'looking through bars'.

Take a popular type of fence around properties: typically black, spear-like bars with pointy tops, with a couple of horizontal rails: picket fence.

I went through a couple of thesauruses and there seems to be precious little synonyms without going into things like barricades and ditches. The phrase I have in mind is: "I stare at/through the rusting railing" and I want to emphasise the aspect of an obstacle making something visible, but unreachable. I chose railing for rhyming potential, and while it can apparently be of any height, I fear it has wrong connotations: of something much shorter in general, with the focus on a single horizontal top rail like along stairs, which would severely clash with my intent.

Now, the fact that it is a property fence has been already established, so if saying something like 'looking through the pickets' or whatsies doesn't sound unnatural, it could certainly do. Sorry for being picky, but, one, I simply cannot rhyme 'fence' with something that would fit my purpose and, two, it is somewhat abstract and I don't think that it has an immediate visual association I am going for.

Answer 1

In the U.S. a wrought iron fence is the general term for what is being called railings in the other post. I think it's another AmE/BrE thing. I would never call those things railings. Railings are what you hold onto when you walk up stairs, more appropriately called bannisters.

I imagine there will be a pedantic response as to the chemical composition of wrought iron and what configurations may or may not apply. But wrought iron fence is understood as metal barred fence (often black).