Although the present structure designed by E. W. M. Corbett dates from 1881, the Ship and Pilot was trading from at least the early 1840s. It seems to have cultivated a clientele from the United States in particular, as a February 1880 advertisement discussed `The American Bar, Ship and Pilot Hotel, Mount Stuart Square, Docks, Cardiff?. The original structure was severely damaged by fire on the morning of 19 January 1881. The severe cold having frozen the mains, water to quench the blaze was eventually obtained after breaking the ice covering the canal, some 700ft (approx. 213.36m) away. The fire completely gutted the building, the front wall of which was also pulled down. The new structure occupies the same site at the corner of James Street and Mount Stuart Square, but is expanded to the west.

The present structure is a large corner building of two storeys plus attics, with 2+1+2 bays facing Mount Stuart Square to the east, 2+1 bays facing James Street to the south, and a narrow corner bay. The eastern facade has broad arched tripartite bar windows in the ground floor with a central (now blocked) narrow doorway, formerly with arched fanlight. The second-storey windows are square-headed sash windows with large square recesses. There are two dormers above the second and fourth bays with a narrow shed dormer above the central bay. The entrance is in the corner bay through a double door with arched fanlight above. Above the corner bay is another dormer. The westernmost bay of the southern elevation is similar to those on the eastern elevation. Between the two main bays is a small relief on the first storey and a narrow rectangular recess (likely formerly a window) in the second storey. The bay to the west is similar in style but with an added third storey with a large red- and yellow-brick chimney and paired sash windows in the second and third storeys. The second-storey windows contain a design in stained-glass. The narrow end bay has a single first-storey door with arched fanlight above. The building, including the dormers, is topped with a dentil cornice and hipped roofs.

(Sources: Victorian Society Tour Notes, VS01/16; Welsh Newspapers Online: `Cardiff Police-Monday?, Glamorgan, Monmouth and Brecon Gazette, 15.07.1843; `Advertising?, Western Mail, 10.02.1880; `Alarming Fire at Cardiff?, Western Mail, 20.01.1881)
A.N. Coward, RCAHMW, 13.07.2018