Trafalgar Square Merchant Seamen'S Almshouses

The Trafalgar Square Merchant Seamen's Almshouses, located on Church Walk in Sunderland, consist of 14 almshouses built in 1840 by William Drysdale for the Trustees of the Muster Roll. These almshouses were designed to accommodate aged merchant seamen, their wives, and widows. The structure is made of garden wall bond brick with painted ashlar dressings, featuring pebble-dash rendered front gables and rear elevations, topped with a concrete-tiled roof and brick chimneys.

The buildings form three sides of a square and include narrow canted corner bays. The 14 houses are arranged in flats, with numbers 9 and 5 located in the corners. Each house has two windows, with gauged round brick arches above central 20th-century doors and overlights that feature radial glazing bars. The shallow segmental arches support two-light renewed mullion and transom casements, also with glazing bars.

A painted ashlar eaves band runs along the top, and at the center, above the door, there is a high relief painted plaque depicting a sailor and a lion supporting escutcheons and maritime symbols. The plaque bears the inscription: "TRAFALGAR SQUARE, ERECTED BY TRUSTEES OF THE MUSTER ROLL ANNO DOMINI 1840, UNDER 4TH AND 5TH of WILLIAM IV," along with the names of the trustees. The eaves band features well-carved low relief Roman capitals that read "ENGLAND EXPECTS EVERY MAN TO DO HIS DUTY." The roof is hipped with brick ridge chimneys.