1-8, McDonalds Almshouses

Nos 1-8 McDonalds Almshouses is a range of eight almshouses built in 1905 by A Stedman. The structure is made of red brick in stretcher bond with ashlar dressings, featuring front gables that are timber-framed with plaster infill and plain tile roofs.

The building is one storey high and consists of nine bays. The central bay is a projecting gabled section with an attic, and the end bays are also projecting and gabled. It has a chamfered plinth, with half-glazed doors that have leaded upper panels. The windows are stone mullion-and-transom types with quoined jambs and leaded lights, and the gables feature decorative barge boards. The elevation is symmetrical, following a rhythm of a, b, c, b, d, b, c, b, a.

The central bay includes an archway flanked by a stone-coped wall that supports a timber arcade, creating porches for the doors of the central almshouses, each with a side-light. Above the archway, there is a decorative plaster panel displaying the date and name, situated below a four-light wood-mullioned window. The end bays each feature a six-light king-mullioned window with one bay of arcading on either side; the inner side forms a porch for the door, while the outer side fronts a window. Each gable has a decorative plaster panel with a sundial and the motto "Time and tide wait for no man." Bays three and seven have gabled, arcaded porches leading to paired doors, flanked by three-light curved-corner windows. The intermediate bays contain cross windows. The building also has tall ribbed and corniced stacks located on the front and rear roof pitches, as well as at the ridges of the gabled bays.

At the rear, the central archway has been partly infilled with an added brick block. Each almshouse has a low wing that has been slightly extended in the later 20th century under a hipped roof.