The 1996 Park Row Development was named the Merchant Venturers Building due to the Faculty of Engineering's long-standing connection with the Society of Merchant Venturers, which was recognised with a £100,000 donation to the Faculty by the Society of Merchant Venturers in 1995.

The Merchant Venturer's Technical College, which merged with University College Bristol's engineering department, was the foundation of the University's Faculty of Engineering, originally housed in the Technical College's buildings in Unity Street. The Society of Merchant Venturers continued officially to financially support the Faculty of Engineering until 1949.

While the University and the Society of Merchant Venturers had an unsteady relationship in the first half of the twentieth century, the University has acknowledged the contributions of the Society of Merchant Venturers at various points in its history through a plaque on the Queen's Building, and then through the naming of the Merchant Venturers Building in 1996.

Firstly, this report details the Society of Merchant Venturers's connections with the Faculty of Engineering throughout the first half of the twentieth century. This historical context is important for understanding the relationship between the two institutions. This frames the second part of the report, which considers the naming of the Merchant Venturers Building more specifically.

The report has consulted and used the Society of Merchant Venturers records in Bristol Archives, the University of Bristol's Special Collections, and a collection of faculty newsletters from the 1990s, now housed in the Queen's Building Library.