Reference
Z558/13/2
Title
Photographs of 113 New Bedford Road, Luton
Date free text
1st July 1975
Production date
From: 1975 To: 1975
Scope and Content
Photographs taken by Eric Meadows.
John Manning's information about 113 New Bedford Road:
"Shortly after I started in Practice (John Manning Partnership), I was asked by Dr Swallow, who lived at Streatley Hall which I had worked on for my Mother prior to selling it to Dr Swallow, to look at 113 New Bedford Road; Erica Swallow (Dr Swallow's wife)'s maiden name Cleaver had just inherited together with her brother and sister on her Mother's death. I did not get a commission to work on the house but was taken by it being such a time warp complete with furnishings etc. I commissioned Eric Meadows to photograph it as a record.
Erica Swallow's father was a builder but he did not build the house; it was built for a builder called Buckingham for himself and the Cleavers purchased it.
I imagine the house was built before the First World War and it would have been a prestigious site looking over Wardown Park which Luton Borough Council had bought in 1904 turning it into Wardon Park. My Father was briefly assistant borough engineer from 1916 to 1919; he said he was responsible for the design of the suspension footbridge over the lake - in the 1950s considered so hideous it was cased in concrete - as a little boy attending pre-prep school at Miss Holtom's (further along New Bedford Road) we often walked in the park and I was fascinated by the cast iron witches hats on the suspension pylons of the bridge, later removed and cased in concrete!"
Level of description
series