Summary

Hotel, built between 1794 and 1796 for Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford, to designs by Henry Holland, and extended between 1906 and 1908 by Thomas Thurlow.

Description

Hotel, built between 1794 and 1796 for Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford, to designs by Henry Holland, and extended between 1906 and 1908 by Thomas Thurlow.

MATERIALS: the late C18 hotel is constructed of Totternhoe clunch with a Welsh slate roof covering.

PLAN: It is rectangular on plan, facing west to High Street, with rectangular-plan extensions extending east.

EXTERIOR: The Swan Hotel is a three-and-half storey building, gable-fronted facing west to High Street. The pitched roof has a Welsh slate covering, and the walls are constructed of ashlar Totternhoe clunch, with a modillion cornice over the second floor, a continuous sill course to the first floor, and a continuous platband over the ground floor. The west front has a pediment to the gable containing a lunette panel and Diocletian attic window, and the ground, first and second floors each have three bays. The second floor has flat-arched three-over-three timber sash windows, the first floor window surrounds are segmental-arched and the ground floor windows flat-arched, both containing tripartite timber sash windows with mullions (stone to the ground floor and timber to the first floor). To the centre of the west front is a tetrastyle Ionic porch with a balustraded parapet, framing a segmental-arched door surround with an intricate traceried fanlight, sidelights, and C20 half-glazed doors. The south front to the Embankment has five bays of flat-arched sash windows; the second and fourth bays of the first floor have segmental wooden oriels overlooking the river, and the other bays of the first floor are blind. The rear (east) gable is constructed of coursed rubble stone, with three bays similar to the front elevation. A three-and-half storey four-bay extension was added to the rear between 1906 and 1908, with a pediment over the central two bays, modillion cornice, flat-arched timber sash windows with horns, and a modillion pediment to its east gable.

INTERIOR: the interior has a late-C17 staircase, said to have been relocated from Houghton House in 1794.

History

Bedford lies in the shallow valley of the River Great Ouse, and from the Middle Saxon period evidence appears for the beginnings of a settlement at ‘Beda’s ford’, a key river crossing point. The Middle Saxon core of Bedford developed on the north side of the river with an early street pattern (still recognisable) and was surrounded by a defensive ditch. In the C10 and C11, Bedford was important both as a trading centre, with coins minted in the town, and as the central burh of the shire. The town’s main north-south route, comprising what is now High Street to the north of the river and St Mary’s and St John’s Streets to the south of the river, was developed by this time. After 1066, Bedford became a stronghold of the new Norman regime and during the reign of William II, a motte and bailey castle was built in a strategic position on the north bank of the river and then rebuilt in stone. A period of unrest, however, led to a siege of the castle in 1224 and, when it fell, Henry III ordered it to be dismantled. Despite political struggles, the town experienced a period of consolidation during the Norman and Medieval periods, when local commerce flourished and religious houses and hospitals were founded. The population of the town was decimated by the Black Death in the C14, and a new river crossing at Great Barford undermined the local economy by drawing traffic and trade away from the town. There was little further growth and the town was largely contained within its Saxon framework, as can be seen from John Speed’s map of Bedford dated 1610.

The dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII dealt a further blow to the town’s prosperity but its fortunes began to revive with the receipt of letters patent from Edward VI, allowing the foundation of a grammar school. Bedford also benefitted from the River Navigation Act, which made the River Great Ouse navigable between Bedford and King’s Lynn (completed in 1689). The town became the headquarters of Cromwell’s army between 1646 and 1647 and the puritan influence established during the Civil War lived on after the Declaration of Indulgence in 1672, when the town became a centre for non-conformist preachers such as John Bunyan. Despite this prosperity, Bedford remained of modest size through to the end of the C18, as illustrated on Thomas Jefferys’ map of 1765. An Improvement Act in 1803 allowed for the erection of a new river bridge between 1811 and 1813 (widened in 1938), and clearance of the Market Square. Continuing prosperity in the early C19 was accompanied by modest growth, but by far the most dramatic expansion of Bedford followed the building of the Midland railway in 1873, linking the town with London, and associated industrialisation. In the early years of the C20, some houses in the town centre were replaced by department stores, banks and cinemas to serve the expanding population; The Arcade was built and other properties in and around the centre were converted to shops and offices. The High Street is characterised by narrow three and four-storey frontages, with long buildings, closes and yards occupying medieval burgage plots to the rear, those on the eastern side of High Street being particularly long.

The Swan Hotel was built between 1794 and 1796 for Francis Russell, the 5th Duke of Bedford, as a hotel and political office of the Duke. The new edifice was constructed on the site of a C16 timber-framed coaching inn, known as the Swan Inn, which served as Bedford’s first post office in 1678 and was acquired by the 5th Duke in 1787. The timber-framed inn can be seen in an undated illustration of the old Swan Inn (Source BLARS) and a 1794 print of Bedford Bridge by J Walker. The architect of the 1790s hotel, Henry Holland (1745-1806), was a well-known architect to the English nobility who designed many country houses for the whig elite, and laid out parts of Knightsbridge and Chelsea. Prior to his work at the Swan Hotel, the 5th Duke of Bedford commissioned Holland to remodel and extend his country residence at Woburn Abbey between 1787 and 1790. The Duke began dismantling Houghton House near Ampthill in 1794, and elements such as the staircase of 1688 were moved to the Swan Hotel, which was then under construction. Holland’s design of the Swan Hotel originally had two flanking gates to the north and south; the south gate can be seen in a view of the bridge by Matthiason in 1824, before it was removed around 1880 for the creation of the Embankment.

The stonemason of the Swan Hotel was John Wing (1756-1826) who came from a family of accomplished masons and architects with a lease on the Totternhoe quarries. Following his work at the Swan Hotel, Wing made many notable contributions within Bedford, including his designs of the new town prison (1801), Bedford House of Industry on Kimbolton Road (1796, now Shires House), two detached houses at 46 and 50 Cardington Road (built around 1809 and 1817 respectively), and Bedford Town Bridge (1811-13), each listed at Grade II. The Swan Hotel was the main stopping point in Bedford for long-distance and Royal Mail coaches; Pigot & Co.’s Directory of 1830 provided a timetable for coaches stopping in the directions of London, Cambridge, Kettering, Leeds, Manchester, and Oxford. The hotel was extended to the rear with a river-facing wing, built between 1906 and 1908 to designs by Thomas Thurlow of High Wycombe.

Reasons for Listing

The Swan Hotel is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an distinctive historic commercial building, which contributes strongly to the architectural character and diversity of Bedford’s historic High Street;
* for the architectural quality of its classical façades, which combine quality materials, elegant proportions and classical detailing to present a building of more than special interest;
* for its design by Henry Holland, a well-known architect to the English nobility who designed many country houses and London townhouses, a number of which are listed and some at high grades.

Historic interest:

* for its construction as the hotel and political office of Francis Russell, the 5th Duke of Bedford;
* for the contribution it makes to the evolution of the historic High Street and development of the town.

Group value:

* for its proximity to and strong visual relationship with other listed buildings on High Street, St Paul’s Square and the Embankment.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17533175

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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