38-45, Bedford Street

A row of cottages built in 1846 on the Woburn Bedford Estate by the Seventh Duke of Bedford. They were constructed of reddish-brown brick with lighter red brick dressings, and have 20th-century tile roofs.

The two-storey cottages have a road elevation divided into three sections. The central section features a pair of slightly projecting gables. The left-hand section has three bays, with a gable to the left and smaller gablets to the others. The right-hand section, also in three bays, has a central gable and a gable to the left. The ground floor has a 3:2:3 arrangement of three-light windows. The first floor has a 3:2:2 arrangement of two-light windows, with a single narrow light in the centre. All windows are casements with glazing bars and wood mullions, set beneath gauged brick flat heads. The doorways are arranged 2:2:2, each with a flat head, dripstone, and a door of three vertical panels. Numerous ridge stacks are present. The right-hand angle of the row is chamfered at ground floor level, featuring an ornamental stop.

These cottages demonstrate the Duke’s belief in providing comfortable housing for agricultural laborers. Construction emphasized utility rather than aesthetic appeal. The quality of workmanship is high for this early example of working-class housing, which influenced later developments such as garden cities and early council housing. The Dukes of Bedford built approximately 500 cottages locally between the late 1840s and World War I. This row is a particularly good example of this early, deliberately plain style of building, and closely resembles designs found in the Seventh Duke’s published Plans and Elevations.