Merchant Venturer'S Almshouses

The Merchant Venturers' Almshouses, located on King Street in Bristol, date back to 1696. They were partially destroyed by bombing around 1940. The building features a render over Pennant rubble, with a 20th-century brick end gable, brick lateral and ridge stacks, and a pantile hipped roof. The structure has a double-depth plan that originally formed three sides of a courtyard, designed in an early Georgian style. It stands two storeys high and has a window arrangement of five: eight: one.

The western and half of the northern ranges have been lost, leaving a 20th-century brick gable at the end of the five-window northern range and a hipped roof over the originally open southern range. The southern range has a thin drip course and a timber modillion eaves cornice. The long range includes a central doorway and two corner doorways, with a right-hand doorway leading to the southern range and a third doorway from the left on the northern range. Each doorway features scrolled brackets carved with leaves supporting open pediment hoods, and the doorways are framed in timber with boarded doors. The windows are mid-20th-century casements with top-hung sections above transoms, set in flush frames. An oculus is positioned above the central doorway.

The road-facing front is constructed of rubble with quoins, featuring four windows with thin rubble voussoirs and flat heads, a dated panel, and a well-crafted carved heraldic panel depicting a merman and merwoman flanking a shield. There are tall lateral stacks at the rear on the northern side and ridge stacks separating the houses on the eastern and southern sides.

Inside, the building has been largely refurbished in the mid-20th century, with a dogleg stair located in the entrance hall. Historically, the almshouses were established by the Merchant Venturers' Society for seamen, as indicated by a board painted with a poem celebrating their virtues on the northern side. The original layout included an enclosed courtyard.