It was presumably orginally an actual funeral directors until the vampires came and took it over. At some point, Herrick became the leader and ran the place, however, when he died, the duty was passed down to Mitchell who started setting up meetings for blood addicts which vampires would attend to become blood free. Kemp, Lucy and other people from CenSSA planted a bomb within the building and it exploded, causing the deaths of 30 vampires. The vampires decided to set up in Bristol was because a notable vampire, Richard Turner, settled there in the 1600s.