38-45, Bedford Street
38-45, Bedford Street
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1113988
- Date first listed:
- 16-Mar-1987
- List Entry Name:
- 38-45, Bedford Street
- Statutory Address:
- 38-45, Bedford Street
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2003-04-19
- Reference:
- IOE01/10697/30
- Rights:
- © Dr W A Cooper. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1113988
- Date first listed:
- 16-Mar-1987
- List Entry Name:
- 38-45, Bedford Street
- Statutory Address 1:
- 38-45, Bedford Street
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- 38-45, Bedford Street
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Central Bedfordshire (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Woburn
- National Grid Reference:
- SP 94864 33299
Details
SP 9433-9533
8/98
WOBURN
BEDFORD STREET (West Side)
Nos 16 to 45 (consecutive)
GV
II
Row of Bedford Estate cottages erected by the Seventh Duke of Bedford. Dated 1846. Reddish brown brick with dressings in a lighter red brick. C20 tile roofs.
Two storeyed row with road elevation in three sections. Central section consists of a pair of slightly projecting gables. Left hand section is in three bays, with gable to left hand and gablet to each of others. Right hand section, also in three bays, has gable to centre and gable to left hand. Ground floor has 3:2:3 three-light windows. First floor has 3:2:2 two-light windows and a narrow single light to centre. All are casements with glazing bars and wood mullions, under gauged brick flat heads. 2:2:2 doorways, all with flat heads and dripstones and containing doors of three vertical panels. Variety of multiple ridge stacks. Right hand angle of row is chamfered at ground floor level with ornamental stop.
The Seventh Duke of Bedford recognised the advantages of housing agricultural labourers in comfortable cottages. From the late 1840s onwards the emphasis in Bedford Estate cottage building was on the utilitarian rather than the Picturesque. The quality of construction of this humble type of dwelling is remarkably high for such an early date. The cottages can be seen as an influential contribution to the development of working class housing which culminated in garden cities and early council housing. The Dukes of Bedford built about 500 cottages in the locality between the late 1840s and World War I. This row of cottages is particularly good example of this early, deliberately plain type of building, and is similar to designs in the Seventh Duke's Plans and Elevations.
The (7th) Duke of Bedford: Plans and Elevations of cottages for Agricultural Labourers, London, 1850 (reprint of letter and plans sent 1849 to Earl of Chichester, President of Royal Agricultural Society); The (11th) Duke of Bedford: A great Agricultural Estate, being the Story of the Origin and Administration of Woburn and Thorney, London, 1897; Rev. C H Hartshorne; The System of building Labourers' Cottages pursued on the estate of His Grace the Duke of Bedford, nd but probably 1849.
Listing NGR: SP9486433299
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 38201
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Hartshorne, Reverend C H, The System of Building Labourers Cottages pursued on the Estates of his Grace the Duke of Bedford, (1849)
The 11th Duke of Bedford, , A Great Agricultural Estate being the Story of the Origin and Administration of Woburn and Thorney, (1897)
Other
The 7th Duke of Bedford, Plans and Elevations of Cottages for Agricultural Labourers, (1850)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 02-Jul-2026 at 12:44:51.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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