Property Description

Manchester Mews is a redeveloped and cobbled cul-de-sac, approached through an entrance under a building on Manchester Street in Westminster, close to Jacob’s Well Mews, an original/ surviving Mews. There are 2 properties in the Mews, used for residential and commercial purposes.

Between October 1940 and June 1941, a high explosive bomb is recorded falling onto the corner of Blandford Street and Manchester Street, just above the mews, meaning the buildings probably had to be rebuilt. The area was noted as being fairly comfortable with good, ordinary household earnings when the London Poverty Maps were first published although some households did have a mixture of comfortable and poorer living conditions.

Manchester Mews is a part of Westminster City Council’s Portman Estate Conservation Area. Situated in the boundaries of Marylebone, which was once covered with forest and marshland, the estate originally comprised about 270 acres and now contains a variety of buildings from different centuries, from many examples of Mews to the grand terraces of Bryanston Square and Montagu Square.

The Mews has two and four storey, plain brickwork buildings with both mansard and parapet roof styles. The buildings are surrounded by a cobbled road surface and partial raised pavements.

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 is mainly residential although some commercial activity still remains.

A few planning applications have been made before and since 2003 for alterations to properties, mainly the installation of window boxes and the display of a sign on the exterior of the property. Conservation Area controls now apply to new development in the Mews.