Property Description

Junction Mews is a cobbled cul-de-sac off Sale Place in Westminster and is accessed through an entrance under a building, directly opposite Rainsford Street, another mews. Both mews are orientated in a south-west to north-east direction. A relatively small mews, there are 25 properties used for both residential and commercial purposes.

A high-explosive bomb hit the nearby Rainsford Street in 1941 and now only a few of the original mews buildings in that street remain. Junction Mews is part of Westminster City Council’s Bayswater Conservation Area and contains the ‘Boatmen’s Institution’, formally the Boatmen’s Chapel – for promoting Christian knowledge amongst Canal Boatmen in 1828. In earlier times it was identified and recorded on the poverty maps for the period as an area of mixed poor to fairly comfortable and ordinary earnings.

The mews is made up of plain-brickwork, two and three storey elevations with mansard roofs and are all well-kept and in good condition. On visit in 2013, the Mews to the far end of the cul-de-sac was having work being carried out (as can be noted in the photographs).

Everchanging Nature

The Mews originally provided stable/coach house accommodation for the larger houses in Star Street and Sussex Gardens, which run parallel to the Mews. Now it is predominantly in residential use, but there remains some commercial use with offices on the ground floor of some properties.

Numerous planning applications have been made for alterations both before and after 2003, many for use of the original mews property as a single family dwelling, some of which include integral garages and an excavation to provide a basement.

Conservation Area controls now apply to any new development in the Mews.