Description

SP 9433-9533
8/97

WOBURN
BEDFORD STREET (West Side)
Nos 36 and 37

GV
II
Pair of Bedford Estate cottages, erected by the Seventh Duke of Bedford. Dated 1847. Red brick, with dressings in lighter brick. C20 tile roofs.

Two storeyed L-plan. Road elevation: right hand block (No. 36) has two three-light windows to ground floor and two two-light windows under gables to first floor. All are casements, with gazing bars and wood mullions, under gauged brick flat heads. Off-centre doorway also has gauged brick flat head and a dripstone. Door of three vertical panels. Left hand gable (No. 37) has three-light window to ground floor, and two-light window to first floor, similar to those in right hand block. South elevation: windows similar to road elevation and entrance to No. 37. One ridge stack and one chimney stack to north wall of No. 37.

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 cottages are remarkable for the high quality of construction displayed in workers' cottages of such early date. They also represent an influential contribution to the development of working class housing, which culminated in garden cities and early council housing.

The Dukes of Bedford constructed about 500 cottages in the locality between the late 1840s and World War I. This pair of cottages is a good example of the earliest phase in this building period, and are 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 estates of His Grace the Duke of Bedford, nd. but apparently 1849.

Listing NGR: SP9483933327

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26607574

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Shredded Chef: 120 Recipes for Building Muscle, Getting Lean, and Staying Healthy
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version