18 And 20, Nicholas Street

Nos. 18 and 20 Nicholas Street are former Poor Law Union offices, now serving as council offices, built in 1866 by William Waddington & Son. The building is designed in a Florentine style, constructed from rock-faced sandstone with freestone dressings and hipped slate roofs across two levels. It has an elongated rectangular plan divided into three parts, featuring a central two-storey hall flanked by offices.

The building stands two storeys high with a window arrangement of 3:4:4, where the central section is taller and the side ranges are slightly set back. Architectural details include a chamfered plinth, sill bands, string courses between the floors, and bracketed eaves cornices. The central portion has recessed segmental-headed four-pane sashed windows on the ground floor, adorned with foliated moulding above, and tall round-headed windows on the first floor featuring two-centred arched extradoses, foliated intradoses, impost bands, and sashed glazing with round-arched glazing bars in the upper sections and etched crowns on the glass.

To the left, the third bay of the left-hand office range has a large round-headed doorway with panelled chamfered pilasters, foliated spandrels, and a dentilled cornice. The right-hand office range features a simpler doorway in the second bay. Both flanking ranges have four-pane sashed windows, with square-headed windows on the ground floor and segmental-headed windows above. The building is topped with ridge chimneys on either side of the central section and gable chimneys at both ends. The interior has not been inspected. This building forms a group with Nos. 22 and 24, which are adjacent to the right.