Description

BRISTOL

ST5872NE KING STREET, Centre
901-1/16/595 (North side)
08/01/59 Merchant Venturers' Almshouses,
Nos.1-9 (Consecutive)

GV II*

Almshouses. Dated 1696. Half destroyed by bombing c1940.
Render over Pennant rubble, C20 brick end-gable, brick lateral
and ridge stacks and pantile hipped roof. Double-depth plan to
2 1/2 sides of a formerly 4-sided courtyard. Early Georgian
style. 2 storeys; 5:8:1-window ranges. The W and half the N
ranges have gone, leaving a C20 brick gable to the end of the
5-window N range, and hipped roof to the originally-open S
range, with a thin drip course and timber modillion eaves
cornice. The long range has a central and 2 corner doorways, a
right-hand doorway to the S range, and third from left on the
N range, with scrolled brackets carved with leaves to open
pediment hoods, half over the corner doorways, and
timber-frames with boarded doors. Mid C20 casement windows
with top-hung casements above transoms, in flush frames.
Oculus over the central doorway. The road front is rubble with
quoins, 4 windows with thin rubble voussoirs to flat heads,
dated panel, and a good carved heraldic panel with merman and
merwoman flanking a shield. Tall rear N lateral stacks, and
ridge stacks separating houses to E and S sides. INTERIOR:
largely refurbished mid C20, dogleg stair in the entrance
hall. HISTORICAL NOTE: founded by the Merchant Venturers'
Society, for seamen, as attested by the board painted with a
poem to their virtues on the N side. Formerly an enclosed
courtyard.
(Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural
History: Bristol: 1979-: 90; The Buildings of England: Pevsner
N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 434).

Listing NGR: ST5883672707

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Merchant Venturers Almshouses at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q6818409

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)