Numbers 25 To 30 And Detached Outhouse Block

SP 9432-9532 WOBURN LEIGHTON STREET (North side) 9/121 - Nos.25 to 30 (consecutive) and detached outhouse block - II Row of Bedford Estate cottages erected by the 7th Duke. Dated 1851. Red brick laid in a curious rat-trap bond. Clay tile roofs. 2 storeyed row. Symmetrical road elevation in 6 bays, the 2 central and outer bays gabled, the intervening bays each with a gablet. Ground and first floors each have 6 windows, all 2-light cast iron lattice casements under slightly cambered heads. 4 plank doors under slightly cambered heads. Entrances to Nos. 25 and 30 are in side elevations and have gabled hoods on curved brackets. Cogged eaves cornice. Red brick ridge stacks. The 7th Duke of Bedford recognised the advantages of housing agricultural labourers in comfortable dwellings. From the late 1840's onwards the emphasis in Bedford Estate cottage building was on the utilitarian rather than the Picturesque, with the early workers' cottages being remarkable for their high quality of construction. The cottages can be seen as an influential contribution to the development of working class housing, which culminated in the garden cities and early council housing. The Dukes of Bedford built about 500 cottages in the locality between the late 1840's and World War I. This row of cottages typifies the plain but substantial dwellings of the earliest phase in this building programme, and has similarities with designs in the 7th Duke's Plans and Elevations. The brickwork is of particular interest as an early form of cavity walling (of note in above work from Charles Hacker). 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 (llth) 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, n.d. but probably 1849.

Listing NGR: SP9455932969