Bristol’s surviving almshouses bear witness to the fact that between 1480 and 1660 the sums endowed to charity, by Bristol merchants, were second only to London.

Urban growth in Bristol in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries led to various social problems, particularly how to care for the growing number of poor and the sick. By 1230, six ‘hospitals’ had been founded on the outskirts of the city, almost wholly on land owned by the Berkeley family.

These hospitals were medieval ‘guesthouses’, usually established by the aristocracy or the church, where poor travellers, as well as those in need, could find shelter and food. They were the forerunner of what are now known as almshouses.

Traditionally almshouses were small local institutions, established by a local benefactor and run by and for local people. The majority of almshouses are still of this type. During the course of the fourteenth century Bristol became a virtually self-governing city, ruled by merchants and they became the city’s benefactors, providing practical charity for those in need.

Bristol’s earliest almshouse was founded in 1292 by Simon Burton, a merchant who was five times lord mayor of the city. The almshouse was situated between St Thomas’ Street and Temple Street in Long Row and had to be rebuilt twice, until the final Georgian building was destroyed in the Blitz.

Between 1292 and 1891, when Lady Haberfield’s almshouse was completed in Hotwells Road, thirty-five almshouses were established in Bristol and still survive today.