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These almshouses are situated on the north side of Winkle Street, just inside God's House Gate. The Hospital was founded in 1185 by Gervaise le Riche, Port Reeve of Southampton, to provide almshouses for the poor and shelter for pilgrims. It was endowed with surplus funds from the founding of Queen's College, Oxford. This was used in part to maintain the God's House almshouses, providing for four aged almsmen and four women, living and dying in succession, and a Warden, or sub-warden, resident to perform service daily in the chapel and having charge in things spiritual and temporal, as the governing head. For several centuries the allowance was two shillings per week to each. The complex contained almshouses, domestic buildings and a chapel dedicated to St Julian. The original hospital buildings were replaced with almshouses, one for men and one for women, in 1588-1593. By 1855 these almshouses were in a poor state of repair and were replaced by the current buildings in 1861 - sotonopedia.wikidot.com