Gill's Almhouses, 12B Governor's Place, Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, BT38 7BP

Gill's Almshouses is a detached five-bay one-and-a-half-storey Tudor Revival almshouse, dated 1842 and designed by Charles Lanyon, located on Governor's Place in Carrickfergus. It sits on the corner of Essex Street, facing south towards the coast, with views of Carrickfergus Castle to the southeast and St. Nicholas Church of Ireland Church to the northeast.

The building is rectangular on plan with gabled projecting end bays to either end. It has a pitched natural slate roof with blue and black clay angled ridge tiles and hipped sections at gable junctions. Two red brick two-stage chimneystacks sit at the ridges, each with two square chimneys set diagonally and fitted with red clay chimneypots. The walling is painted smooth render over a splayed and moulded plinth, with rendered quoins to the projections and gables topped with verge coping stepped out to the eaves. Rendered masonry finials crown the gable ends.

The principal south elevation features one-and-a-half-storey gabled projecting bays at either end, with a slightly projecting full-height storm porch at the centre. Each gabled bay apex contains a single lancet window with hoodmould and foliated labels, set above a ground-floor tripartite mullioned window with the centre light heightened by an additional light. A stop-ended labelmould runs beneath. The porch door is square-headed painted timber with four moulded panels, set within a four-centred-arch-headed opening with a two-moulded-panel tympanum, splayed and rebated rendered architrave, hoodmould and foliated labels. A marble date plaque above the door is inscribed "ALDERMAN GILL'S / ALMSHOUSES / ERECTED 1842," with a shield date plaque above. The cheeks of the porch are blank.

Windows throughout are square-headed with rendered architraves and splayed sills, though all are modern uPVC casement replacements. The west and east elevations are identical, each with a single window set into a four-centred-arch-headed former door recess with rendered tympanum. The rear north elevation is symmetrical with two windows flanking a square-headed replacement timber door with overlight; these windows lack architraves. Lean-to coal sheds abut the left and right ends.

The building was originally constructed of brick but by 1850 was already showing problems, leading the trustees in 1852 to agree proposals for stone finishing with cement and painting, which accounts for the current rendered appearance.

Gill's Almshouses is one of a group founded by Alderman Gill in the eighteenth century. A contemporary record notes that six houses in Gill's Row were first opened for pensioners on 23 October 1820, and four houses on Governor's Place opened on 15 January 1842. These buildings replaced earlier almshouses on Essex Street, constructed between 1766 and 1767, which by 1829 had deteriorated so severely they were deemed "not worth laying money on." Charles Lanyon, then county surveyor, prepared original plans in 1839, but these were not accepted. In 1841 the trustees resolved that Lanyon alter his design to provide additional accommodation in the form of a loft over the kitchen and room in each house, reached by a step ladder. The building originally contained four dwellings but was remodelled in 1997 by Edward Cooke and now comprises two houses. It was restored as dwellings for the elderly in 1980 by the James Butcher Housing. The almshouses first appear on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 records "Gill's Almhouses and offices" leased from trustees at a value of £12, later marked as exempt.

The building stands within a conservation area and is situated on parkland adjacent to the remains of the town walls. A stone memorial in the nearby parkland commemorates Thomas Delaney, an archaeologist whose excavations between 1972 and 1979 contributed significantly to knowledge of Carrickfergus's buried history.