Property Description
Grosvenor Crescent Mews is a cobbled cul-de-sac approached through its own arch off Grosvenor Crescent, with a pedestrian through road to Old Barrack Yard, also an original/ surviving Mews street in Westminster. There are 35 properties in the Mews, used for residential and commercial purposes. It is situated next to Wilton Row, another original/ surviving Mews.
A high explosive bomb fell directly onto the Mews in World War II, meaning the properties within had to be rebuilt as a result of the damage that occurred. When the London Poverty Maps were published, the area was determined as having fairly comfortable living conditions and households with good ordinary earnings.
Grosvenor Crescent Mews is part of Westminster City Council’s Belgravia Conservation Area. First designated in 1968, it was laid out as a fashionable residential area to the west of Buckingham Palace. There is a high degree of townscape uniformity and a formal layout based on a grid pattern. The area is predominantly residential with some shops on the edges. There are also a significant number of embassies, diplomatic buildings and institutional headquarters.
The private, gated Mews has three storey properties with a mixture of rendered and painted brickwork and mansard roof styles. The garages remain intact and are surrounded by a cobbled road surface. Numbers 32 and 32a Grosvenor Crescent Mews are listed buildings.
Everchanging Nature
The original purpose of the Mews was to provide stable/ coach house accommodation to the main houses on Grosvenor Crescent. Now, it is predominantly used for residential purposes though some commercial activity is still carried out to this day.
Many planning applications have been made since 2003 including; roof extensions, changes to the fenestration, the complete demolition of certain properties and basement excavations. Conservation Area controls now apply to new development in the Mews.