Town Hall

The Town Hall, located in Woburn Market Place, is a Grade II listed building that has been partly converted into offices. A plaque on the south elevation notes that it was built by John VI Duke of Bedford in 1830, restored by Hastings IX Duke of Bedford in 1884, and enlarged by Herbrand XI Duke of Bedford in 1912. The original design, created by Edward Blore, features a loosely Jacobethan style, with mottled red brick and ashlar dressings, and a clay tile roof.

The structure is a two-storey, gabled rectangular block with a square turret at the northeast angle. The east gable end has a central bay that slightly projects, supported by diagonal buttresses, which gives the building the appearance of having aisles. A four-centred arched doorway is accessed by a flight of steps and features double doors with upper panels that have pointed arches. Above the doorway is a canted oriel window adorned with a carved Bedford crest at the center. The building includes mullioned windows with cusped lights, and the buttresses are topped with gargoyles and heavy panelled finials.

The turret is divided into three stages by string courses, with the top stage featuring three-centred arched louvred lights on each side. The lower stages have narrower lights with cast iron diamond glazing bars. A moulded brick eaves cornice includes a Lombard frieze, and the turret is capped with a leaded pyramidal roof that has concave sides.

On the side elevations, the ground floor has been reworked with lighter brick. Originally, the ground floor featured open arches with metal grilles. Large three-light mullion and transom windows are separated by two-stage buttresses. The first floor has three-centred arched single lights with cast iron diamond glazing bars that rise slightly above the eaves level, each under narrow gablets with stone coping and finials. The south elevation includes two integral chimney stacks with octagonal moulded brick shafts, while the west gable end has two similar integral chimneys and a large mullion and transom window on the first floor. The ground floor features a low extension from 1912 with mullioned windows, a three-centred arched doorway, and a stone-coped parapet.