122 Bromham Road

122 Bromham Road

This cottage orné was built in 1852 and extended between 1852 and 1884, with a further extension added between 1926 and 1966. It is constructed in a neo-Tudor picturesque style and has been converted into six flats.

The original front range facing north is built of stone laid in polygonal bond with raised pointing and ashlar stone dressings, covered with a roof of red clay fishscale tiles. The rear is of red brick laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings and red clay tiles. The cottage has a roughly L-shaped plan comprising the original north front range, an eastern extension and a later rear wing, all added during the 19th century, followed by a 20th-century extension to the south end of the rear wing.

The front elevation is characterised by stone mullion windows, a prominent clock tower, and multiple gables with a variety of bargeboard designs. The original stone range is of one and a half storeys beneath a steeply pitched roof that sweeps down to ground-floor level at the east end and features a cross gable at the west end. The gable ends are decorated with scalloped bargeboards and drop finials. A gabled porch with ornate bargeboards and a drop finial projects from the cross gabled bay. It is supported by original carved oak balusters salvaged from the disused Church of St James in Clophill, and has a red and black quarry-tiled floor. The front door is a later replacement. To the left stands a buttress with stone offsets and above it a single-light mullion window in a stone surround with a Tudor hoodmould and casement with iron honeycomb glazing. Further left is a single-storey projecting gabled bay with wavy bargeboards and a three-light mullion window with the same hoodmould and glazing. Above is a small stone shield plaque. The left return has a 20th-century double-leaf glazed door within a red brick surround, which is clearly a later insertion. The attic storey above is lit by a two-light mullion window.

The right return features a projecting gabled bay just below the roof line, with quatrefoil bargeboards. It is lit by a three-light mullion and transom window with honeycomb glazing but without a hoodmould. Above, a small window has been blocked and replaced in the 20th century with a horizontal window in a stone surround. Rising on the right is a square clock tower with stone quoins and a pyramidal roof punctuated by small gables with trefoil bargeboards and surmounted by a louvre. The north and west faces both display a round clock face, and just below on the west face is a three-sided corbelled oriel window with stone mullions and honeycomb glazing. A doorway with a red brick surround and 20th-century door has been inserted into the north wall of the tower.

The red brick extension on the east side is of two storeys beneath a pitched roof with kneelered stone parapets at the gable end and a sawtooth cornice. Two tall chimney pots rising from the east gable have octagonal moulded bases and caps with decorative circular shafts. The two-bay south elevation features a pair of double-leaf doors with stone lintels and cornices supported by shaped brackets. The first floor is dominated by two large gabled windows positioned across the eaves, with stone coping and kneelers housing two-light casement windows under wide stone lintels. The fenestration employs the same honeycomb style, though the glazing bars appear to be of wood rather than iron.

The rear (north) wing, added later in the 19th century and then extended in the 20th century, has two storeys and a half-hipped mansard roof. It does not share the architectural detailing of the rest of the cottage and has undergone numerous alterations.

The interior has been divided into six flats and has not been fully inspected, though original square panelling is thought to survive in at least one of the reception rooms. According to an article in the Bedfordshire Times and Independent of 9 August 1929, the main staircase includes carved oak balusters from the Church of St Paul in Bedford, and another staircase incorporates carved oak balusters from the altar rails of the disused Church of St James in Clophill.