St John's Homes is a Grade II listed building in the Bedford local planning authority area, England. First listed on 17 May 1984. A Victorian Almshouses. 3 related planning applications.

St John's Homes

WRENN ID
silent-bailey-reed
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Bedford
Constituency
Bedford MP: Mohammad Yasin (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
17 May 1984
Type
Almshouses
Period
Victorian
Address
St John's Homes, Bedford Road, Kempston, MK42 8PY
OS grid reference
TL 028 475
Coordinates
52.11683, -0.49883
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: EPC · related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

St John's Homes are almshouses founded in 1881 by Mrs. Anne Jane Charles Williamson for members of the Church of England. The building is constructed of red brick, with the ground floor covered in colour-washed plaster and red brick dressings, while the first floor features decorative tiles and some mock timber framing on the projecting gables. The roofs are made of clay tiles.

The structure is a two-storey, five-bay main block, flanked by single-storey, single-bay blocks to the west and east, the latter of which has a hipped roof. Designed in a neo-vernacular style, the main block has a unique bay window that is canted to the left side only, which is overhung by a large jettied gabled projection that includes a jettied attic. The first floor features a projecting four-light window supported by brackets.

In the attic, there is a crucifix at the centre, with the letters "A.M.D.C." incised in the bressumer below it. The first floor bressumer is inscribed with "In memoriam." Below the first floor window, there are four plasterwork panels; the two central panels display coats of arms, while the outer panels show "A.D." and "1881." Each end of the main block has a canted bay topped with a smaller gabled and jettied first floor that features a three-light projecting window.

The two recessed bays each have a three-light casement window with a cambered head on the ground floor, along with two small windows and one gabled projecting two-light window on the first floor. There is one three-light window on each side wing. The windows are casements, with the upper parts featuring glazing bars. The doors, arranged in a 1-2-1-1-2-1 pattern, consist of six panels with the top pair glazed and are topped with tiled porch canopies. The building also features a variety of tall multiple stacks and bargeboards on the gables. Anne Williamson, a widow, lived in the central first-floor flat.

Local climate

St John's Homes sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 95% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 91% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 54% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 3 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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