Property Description

London Mews is a cul-de-sac approached through an entrance under a building on London Street in Westminster, parallel to Norfolk Square Mews and in line with Praed Mews, other original/ surviving Mews. There are 18 properties in the Mews, used for residential and commercial purposes.

A high explosive bomb fell onto Winsland Mews (not original) in World War II, not far from London Mews. When the London Poverty Maps were published, the area was classed as having a mixture of comfortable living conditions and ordinary household salaries for the time with poorer families.

London Mews is part of Westminster City Council’s Bayswater Conservation Area. Developed over the space of about 70 years, the townscape is uniform despite being composed of several distinct areas and is made up of a regular composition of streets and squares in an Italianate style. An important aspect of the street pattern are the several mews, some quite intimate and others so large that they appear to be a development of their own. The contrast of scale provided by these mews is a crucial aspect of the overall area’s character.

The Mews has one, two and three storey buildings with mansard and parapet roof styles and plain brickwork facades. The buildings are surrounded by a tarmacadam road surface.

Everchanging Nature

The original purpose of the Mews was to provide stable/ coach house accommodation to the main houses in the surrounding area. Nowadays, the function of the properties varies between residential and commercial (in the form of offices).

A few planning applications have been made before and since 2003 for alterations to properties, most notably the use of the properties as offices. Conservation Area controls now apply to new development in the Mews.