This building dates from the early 19th century, though there has been an inn on the site since at least 1765.

The pub is shown on a 1778 map as "The Compass"; so sometime in the early 19th century it had become "the Compasses"; it's marked as such on plans understood to date from about the time the Wet Dock was opened (1842).

Now used for student accommodation.

Ian Johnson tells us:

They had a coal stove in the bar with an iron chimney pipe going up through the ceiling. I once leant nonchalantly against that pipe and burned my palm so badly that I had to be rushed to hospital on the back of my mate's motorbike…