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
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Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2000-05-25
- Reference:
- IOE01/02018/26
- Rights:
- © Mr Nigel Ward. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial 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
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:
- 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
Watson, H M, History of the Corps of Royal Engineers, (1954), 157-160
SAVE Britains Heritage, , Deserted Bastions, (1993), 162
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 11-Jun-2026 at 06:41:13.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.