Theoretical arguments suggest that progressive gravity waves incident on a vertical wall can produce periodic standing waves only if the incident wave steepness ak is quite small, certainly less than 0.284. Laboratory experiments are carried out in which an incident wave train of almost uniform amplitude meets a vertical barrier. At wave steepnesses greater than 0.236 the resulting motion near the barrier is non-periodic. A growing instability is observed in which every third wave crest is steeper than its neighbours. The steep waves develop sharp crests, or vertical jets. The two neighbouring crests are rounded, at-topped, or of intermediate form. The instability grows by a factor of about 2.2 for every three wave periods, almost independently of the incident wave steepness.