St Peter’s Hospital stood on this site until it was bombed in 1940. It was built as a grand house in 1402 between St Peter's churchyard and the River Avon by prominent merchant Thomas Norton. It was finally taken over by the Corporation of the Poor in 1696 and housed the impoverished. Louisa, or the ‘maid of the haystack’, was cared for here, briefly, in 1776, before returning to Flax Bourton. Later, the site witnessed the pauper riots in 1832 caused by an outbreak of Indian cholera in the wards. At the time of the outbreak, it was found that the buildings accommodated 600 paupers. A delusion became prevalent that the authorities were burying paupers alive; and on one occasion a mob broke into the burial ground, and tore up some of the recently interred bodies.