Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 2 June 2023 to amend the name and address, and to reformat the text to current standards

TL0347
179-0/2/10002

KEMPSTON
BEDFORD ROAD
The Keep

(Formerly listed as Bedford Masonic Centre)

II

Barracks armoury, stores and quarters, now masonic centre and offices. Dated 1876, designed at the War Office by Major HC Seddon RE; altered c1982. Brick with stone dressings, and hipped slate roof. Fortress Gothic Revival style.

EXTERIOR: three-storey and basement keep, two-storeys and basement each side; 3:3:5:3:7:2-window range. Entrance block has corner towers set forward and pseudo-machicolations to a crenellated parapet, flush cill, transom and lintel bands, and eaves cornice. Central segmental archway has moulded arch and small doorways each side with shouldered lintels, and a label mould, narrow windows, with moulded transoms to the centre and right-hand tower, and sashes with margin panes. One-, two- and three-lights transom windows to flanking ranges, the right-handend two-window section set forward, the left-hand range has been truncated. Rear elevation similar, the left-hand range has two two-storey porches with steps up to the SW end beneath tripartite windows.

INTERIOR: has axial corridors, basement lock-ups and kitchens; fire-proof keep has cantilevered dogleg stairs with cast-iron balusters, and central rooms with jack-arch ceilings.

HISTORY: the keep was a secure armoury and store, guard house and lock up, and the characteristic building of the Localisation depots. Built as part of the Cardwell reforms, which redistributed barracks around the country to strengthen the connection between a regiment and its locality and assist recruitment. Formerly the front to a parade ground and barracks. One of only eight surviving Cardwell'keeps', with the similar example at Worcester, and Reading, Guildford, Taunton, Devizes, Pontefract and Bury St Edmunds.

(SAVE Britain's Heritage: Deserted Bastions, Historic Naval and Military Architecture: London: 1993-: 162; Watson Colonel Sir H M: History of the Corps of Royal Engineers: Chatham: 1954-: 157-160).

Listing NGR: TL0392248425

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26656341

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East: Norwich and North-east v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6