Leighton Buzzard Quaker Meeting House

The Leighton Buzzard Quaker Meeting House is a building of 1787, extended in 1812, with later additions and alterations. It is constructed of red and blue bricks laid in various bonds, with clay tile and slate roof coverings.

The meeting house is rectangular in plan, with a porch in the centre of the east elevation. To the south-west corner is a square kitchen, and to the north-east a small toilet block. The building is situated in a courtyard to the west side of North Street, behind numbers 27-31 North Street and near the Almshouses (numbers 33, 35, 37-51 North Street), all of which are also listed. It is oriented north-south and has a brick plinth and cornice. The roof is hipped and covered with clay tiles.

The east elevation, the main facade, is built of blue brick in a header bond, with red brick dressings. It features, from left to right, a large timber cross window under a segmental arch, a doorway with a pedimented doorcase under a segmental arch, a second cross window of similar style, and two twelve-over-twelve sash windows, which light the main meeting room. A timber-framed porch with a gabled slate roof provides access to the main entrance. The north elevation is plain, while the south elevation contains one window opening to the small meeting room. The single-storey kitchen to the left has a hipped tiled roof, obscuring part of the west elevation. The three-bay garden front on the west side is constructed of red brick in mixed bonds and features three eight-over-eight sash windows under segmental arches. Some diapering in blue brick is visible on the southern end of the west wall.

Inside, the meeting house is divided into a main meeting room to the north and ancillary spaces to the south. The double-leaf door from the porch leads into the plainly plastered main meeting room, which has a tall dado of horizontal boards. This dado rises behind the Elders’ Stand on the north wall, which consists of three tiers of fixed backed benches accessed from either end. The front two benches have curved arm rests on turned balusters. A panelled partition separates the main meeting room from the spaces to the south. This partition includes vertically sliding shutters and a central walkway leading to a lobby, followed by the small meeting room, which retains some of its panelled dado. The kitchen is accessed from the small meeting room.