Marylands, Former Woburn Cottage Hospital Including Former Isolation Block And Mortuary To North

Marylands, a former cottage hospital on Leighton Street in Woburn, is now used as a residential college. Built between 1901 and 1903 with minor alterations in the later 20th century, it was designed by Henry Percy Adams FRIBA based on a sketch plan by the Duchess of Bedford, for the 11th Duke of Bedford. The building is rendered brick with deep sloping hipped tiled roofs, timber verandahs and windows, executed in the Arts and Crafts style. It comprises a 2-storey main range with rear services wing, a separate 2-storey isolation block to the north, and a single-storey mortuary.

The south elevation presents a long front range beneath a deep sloping hipped roof with four substantial chimneys set within the front roof slope. At the centre are three advanced gables; those at the outer ends are rendered with corner buttresses and feature 4-light casements to the gables and wide ground floor bow windows. The central entrance gable displays decorative bargeboards and vertical timber pegged studs, with a pair of casements above a plaque dated 1903 bearing the Bedford arms and the motto CHE SARA SARA. The entrance itself is a recessed porch with a moulded Tudor arch and timber framing. On either side are two window bays with 3-light windows to the first floor above taller ground floor windows. At both ends, single-storey verandahs with slender wooden posts extend and wrap the corners. A central window bay cuts through the eaves, and a polygonal sunroom with glazed leaded panes and hipped roof is set to the rear at the side (the left verandah has lost its side bays). The north elevation comprises a 2-storey central range with paired chimneystacks, connected by a wide single-storey link to a taller kitchen range with hipped roof and large ridge stack. Gables to each side feature tall leaded lights with hoppers, below which a further lower hipped roof projects with its own lower hipped roof. A tall stair window faces east. Rainwater hoods bear a 'B' script. A late 20th-century extension at the rear (replacing a former toilet block) is not of architectural interest.

The interior features an entrance vestibule with leaded lights opening onto a spine corridor with deep moulded cornices. Offices line the front; those flanking the entrance contain fireplaces in Arts and Crafts style with delicate classical wood surrounds, central niches above yellow tiles (one painted) and studded metal details. At each end stand large former ward rooms with wide barrel-vaulted ceilings and sun porches. A central hall has an arcade with a wide semi-circular fireplace to the rear wall, fitted with yellow tiles and a central small studded metal surround. An open well staircase features teak newels of heavy square plan with diagonally set stick balusters. The rear range contains a former 2-storey operating room, now a modern kitchen, alongside a wooden fireplace and a secondary teak stair with ball-capped newels and flat balusters. Upper floors retain fitted cupboards, internal doors and porcelain sinks. Built-in storage platforms occupy the hipped roof spaces at both ends.

The isolation block to the north is a square-plan range with a deep pyramidal hipped roof and central chimney matching the main building. Its south elevation displays two tall cross-frame windows to each floor, those to the upper storeys canted and cut through the eaves. To the east stands an advanced entrance porch with ashlar lining and arches on each side; a former ambulance entrance now has a wide 20th-century door. The interior contains a teak staircase with ball-capped newels and wide 4-panelled doors matching those in the main range.

The mortuary to the north is a single-storey range with a gabled porch containing a 20th-century door and three small-pane casements to the right.

The hospital opened on 22 May 1903. Mary, wife of the 11th Duke of Bedford and known as the 'Flying Duchess', sketched a floor plan for the site that demonstrated careful attention to the provision of fresh air and light and quality accommodation for patients, nurses and staff. During the First World War, the building served as part of the Military Hospital at Woburn Abbey, where the Duchess worked as a nurse. Subsequently it housed the Political Intelligence Department from 1939 and served as a document printing centre. A Second World War air raid shelter was constructed to the west of the main range. This remains one of the best preserved early 20th-century cottage hospitals, retaining an impressive and intact Arts and Crafts style design.