Gill's Almhouses, 32a - 32b Ellis Street, Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, BT38 8AY

Gill's Almshouses, Ellis Street, Carrickfergus

This late-Georgian terrace of former almshouses retains essential character in its front elevation. The buildings are historically associated with Alderman Henry Gill, who made provision for their construction in his will of 1760. The almshouses were built around 1820 and opened for pensioners on 23 October 1820, constructed according to Gill's wishes to house elderly men of good character, stipulating they were not "inclined or given to idleness, or Drunkenness" and were "remarkable for their inoffensiveness". They were restored in 1904 and again in 1980 by the James Butcher Housing Association, when the rear elevations and interior detailing were substantially altered. Despite these changes, the buildings possess architectural interest in the proportion and detailing of the front elevation and have group value with each other and with the other almshouses at Governor's Place (HB22.08.014), also associated with Alderman Gill.

The building is a symmetrical two-bay one-and-a-half-storey terrace of rendered brick. Number 32 is the south dwelling in a row of three similarly styled almshouses. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with blue-black clay ridge tiles and has a red brick chimneystack to the party wall with No. 34 (HB22/07/001B), finished with terracotta pots. Deep overhanging timber eaves feature plain bargeboards.

The front (east) elevation has smooth rendered walling with a roughcast finish to the first floor and corbelled brick eaves. A central entrance door is timber-sheeted with a central glazed pane and original ironmongery, set within a smooth rendered architrave. The principal elevation displays square-headed 6/6 timber casements with smooth rendered architraves and painted masonry cills. On either side of the central entrance, a window is surmounted by a wall-head dormer. The left gable is abutted by a two-storey terrace at No. 30 Ellis Street, and the right gable abuts No. 34.

The rear (west) elevation has been substantially altered. It features a continuous wall-head dormer with flat roof and smooth rendered walls. A central replacement door is surmounted by a pitched felted canopy supported on timber brackets. Two small lean-to boiler houses flank the door—one to the left and one to the right—each with two casement windows to the left (right windows diminished). At first-floor level, three 1/1 timber casements are present. Rainwater goods are uPVC.

The almshouses appear on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 and are captioned 'Gills Almshouses' on the third edition of 1901–2. Griffith's Valuation of 1860 records three houses and gardens on the plot, each occupied by lodgers, with the lessor recorded as 'Gills Trustees'. Each property was valued at £3 10s., with a note stating 'free houses and gardens from the trustees of Gills Charity'. A plaque on the neighbouring terrace states the almshouses were erected in 1761, though historical sources including Gill's Charity Minute Book and Ordnance Survey memoirs indicate construction around 1820. The almshouses are listed as Grade B2 and are located on the west side of Ellis Street, Carrickfergus, in the townland of Clipperstown. They are currently used as residential housing and are in the ownership of a housing association.