Property Description
Hay’s Mews is a through road containing 44 properties between Waverton Street and Chesterfield Hill in Westminster, with another T-section through road leading to Charles Street and Hill Street. The properties within the Mews are used for residential purposes.
A high explosive bomb fell directly onto Hay’s Mews between 1940 and 1941, meaning the properties had to be rebuilt. When the London Poverty Maps were published, the area was determined as being fairly comfortable and having households with good ordinary earnings.
Hay Mews is part of Westminster City Council’s Mayfair Conservation Area. First designated in 1969, it derives its name from a fair held in the month of May in fields around the site of today’s Shepherd Market. The area is dominated by fashionable town-houses (and their mews) reflecting the history of English domestic architecture from the early 18th to the early 20th century.
The Mews has two, three and five storey, painted and rendered brickwork buildings with mansard and parapet roof styles. The garages vary between intact and converted and are surrounded by a tarmacadam road surface. Numbers 4, 14, 44 and 45 are registered Listed Buildings.
Everchanging Nature
The original purpose of the Mews was to provide stable/ coach house accommodation to the main houses on Hill Street and Charles Street. Now, it is predominantly used for residential purposes.
A few planning applications have been made since 2003, notably the partial and complete demolition of certain properties. Conservation Area controls now apply to new development in the Mews.