26,28, EASTGATE

Nos 26 and 28 Eastgate are two houses built around 1750. They are two storeys tall with attics, constructed from red brick and topped with a new pantile roof featuring two altered gabled dormers. The houses have a 19th-century wooden console eaves cornice and two windows on the upper floor, each with replaced glazing bars. The ground floor windows also have renewed glazing bars and shutters. The wood doorcases, likely reused from Hotham House, are decorated with finely-carved mouldings on the architraves, transom, and dentil cornices, along with plain friezes. The doors have six fielded panels, and there are round-headed garden doors at either end.

Inside, the houses contain joinery that is almost certainly from the demolished Hotham House, which was located directly across the street. The staircase in No 26 features a closed string, plain newels, a moulded handrail, and balusters that have octagonal lower parts tapering downwards and vase-shaped upper parts. There are two chimney pieces on the first floor with carved architraves and carved, moulded mantel shelves. The landing has a window with a panelled window seat, and one ground floor room has a carved and moulded wooden cornice on the ceiling. The staircase in No 28 has an open string, plain newels, a moulded handrail, and balusters similar to those in No 26, along with a semi-spiral curtail. The landing window features a fielded panelled seat, and one door in the hall has a carved and moulded architrave.