Property Description
Devonshire Mews West is a cobbled cul-de-sac off Devonshire Street in Westminster directly opposite Devonshire Mews South, another original/ surviving Mews. The Mews contains 24 properties and is used for residential purposes.
Between October 1940 and June 1941, a high explosive bomb is recorded falling onto the central section of Harley Street, not far from the Mews. The area was noted as being fairly comfortable with good, ordinary household earnings when the London Poverty Maps were first published.
Devonshire Mews West is situated to the north of the Harley Street Conservation Area in Westminster. First designated in 1968, the area is now dominated by terraced houses of different periods and different levels of social status. It retains a substantial medical presence, whilst offices predominate to the eastern edges.
The Mews is quite long and is entered through a narrow opening but widens into a large ‘courtyard’. This leads into a long, narrow road running to a very high red brick industrial building at the far end. This road is lined by low, flat-roofed, two-storey mews of varying ages. The road surface is mostly tarmacadam and there has been some redevelopment to the properties in a mews-style.
Everchanging Nature
The original purpose of the Mews was to provide stable accommodation for the main properties in Devonshire Place and Harley Street. There have been a few planning applications made before and since 2003, mainly fenestration alterations, external alterations and basement excavations. Conservation Area controls now apply to any new development in the Mews.