The Keep

The Keep, Bedford Road, Kempston, MK42 8AH

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1375569
Date first listed:: 08-Jul-1998
List Entry Name:: The Keep
Statutory Address:: The Keep, Bedford Road, Kempston, MK42 8AH

The Missing Pieces Project

Share your view of unique places. Almost 350,000 photos and stories have been added so far.

Add your contribution

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2000-05-25
Reference:: IOE01/02018/26
Rights:: © Mr Nigel Ward. Source: Historic England Archive

Local Heritage Hub

Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.

Discover more

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1375569
Date first listed:: 08-Jul-1998
List Entry Name:: The Keep
Statutory Address 1:: The Keep, Bedford Road, Kempston, MK42 8AH

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: The Keep, Bedford Road, Kempston, MK42 8AH

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Bedford (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Kempston
National Grid Reference:: TL 03922 48425

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 2 June 2023 to amend the name and address, and to reformat the text to current standards

TL0347 179-0/2/10002

KEMPSTON BEDFORD ROAD The Keep

(Formerly listed as Bedford Masonic Centre)

II

Barracks armoury, stores and quarters, now masonic centre and offices. Dated 1876, designed at the War Office by Major HC Seddon RE; altered c1982. Brick with stone dressings, and hipped slate roof. Fortress Gothic Revival style.

EXTERIOR: three-storey and basement keep, two-storeys and basement each side; 3:3:5:3:7:2-window range. Entrance block has corner towers set forward and pseudo-machicolations to a crenellated parapet, flush cill, transom and lintel bands, and eaves cornice. Central segmental archway has moulded arch and small doorways each side with shouldered lintels, and a label mould, narrow windows, with moulded transoms to the centre and right-hand tower, and sashes with margin panes. One-, two- and three-lights transom windows to flanking ranges, the right-handend two-window section set forward, the left-hand range has been truncated. Rear elevation similar, the left-hand range has two two-storey porches with steps up to the SW end beneath tripartite windows.

INTERIOR: has axial corridors, basement lock-ups and kitchens; fire-proof keep has cantilevered dogleg stairs with cast-iron balusters, and central rooms with jack-arch ceilings.

HISTORY: the keep was a secure armoury and store, guard house and lock up, and the characteristic building of the Localisation depots. Built as part of the Cardwell reforms, which redistributed barracks around the country to strengthen the connection between a regiment and its locality and assist recruitment. Formerly the front to a parade ground and barracks. One of only eight surviving Cardwell'keeps', with the similar example at Worcester, and Reading, Guildford, Taunton, Devizes, Pontefract and Bury St Edmunds.

(SAVE Britain's Heritage: Deserted Bastions, Historic Naval and Military Architecture: London: 1993-: 162; Watson Colonel Sir H M: History of the Corps of Royal Engineers: Chatham: 1954-: 157-160).

Listing NGR: TL0392248425

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 469533
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
SAVE Britains Heritage, , Deserted Bastions, (1993), 162
Watson, H M, History of the Corps of Royal Engineers, (1954), 157-160

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.