Kynance Mews is a

mews A mews is a row or courtyard of stables and carriage houses with living quarters above them, built behind large city houses before motor vehicles replaced horses in the early twentieth century. Mews are usually located in desirable residential ...

street in

South Kensington South Kensington is a district at the West End of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with the advent of the ra ...

district of the

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (often known by its initialism as RBKC) is an Inner London, Inner London borough with Royal borough, royal status. It is the List of English districts by area, smallest borough in London and the secon ...

in London, SW7. The mews consists of 33 residential properties on a setted road that passes from Gloucester Road on the east, before being bisected by Launceston Place, with the western end of the mews ending in a

cul-de-sac A dead end, also known as a ''cul-de-sac'' (; , ), a no-through road or a no-exit road, is a street with only one combined inlet and outlet. Dead ends are added to roads in urban planning designs to limit traffic in residential areas. Some d ...

. The entrances to the mews pass through three arches, each listed Grade II on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

. The arches were built c. 1860 to a design by

Thomas Cundy III Thomas Cundy III ( Thomas de Candie, 17 October 1821 – 4 November 1895) was a British architect. He joined his father's practice in the 1840s and was also surveyor of the Grosvenor Estate, London. He retired from that post in 1890, and was s ...

. David Tucker in his 2009 book ''London Walks: London Stories'' wrote that Kensington is home to the "prettiest and most unusual" mews, and that Kynance Mews was the mews for those who want "sheer rustic rose-petal-perfect-pretty". In their 1982 book ''The Mews of London'', Barbara Rosen and

Wolfgang Zuckermann Wolfgang Joachim Zuckermann (11 October 1922 – 30 October 2018) was a German-born American harpsichord maker and writer. He was known for inventing a highly popular kit for constructing new instruments and wrote an influential book, ''The Mode ...

wrote that upon entering the western end of the mews from Launceston Place, "one can easily forget London and imagine oneself in a village deep in the English countryside". The mews is a popular place for

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

photographs; having been described as "Insta-famous" and has been listed as one of the most "instagrammable" places to photograph ''

wisteria ''Wisteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae). The genus includes four species of woody twining vines that are native to China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, southern Canada, the Eastern United States, and nor ...

'' in London by the ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

''.

Location

Kynance Mews is located in London's Kensington district, bisected by Launceston Place. The Gloucester Road adjoins the east end of the east part of the mews. Part of the north wall of the western end backs onto the grounds of Christ Church on the corner of

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

and Eldon Road, the church is accessible through a set of steps in the west end of the mews. The mews is part of the De Vere Conservation Area.

History

It was known as Cornwall Mews until 1924, having been built as stabling for the

Cornwall Gardens Cornwall Gardens is a long narrow garden square in South Kensington, London, England. The street runs east–west off Gloucester Road and crosses Launceston Place. The ownership of the holdings and land of what is now Cornwall gardens can b ...

development to the south by the builders Welchman and Gale between 1862 and 1879. The mews served as the stabling for Welchman and Gale's Cornwall Gardens development.British History Online
Survey of London: Volume 42, Kensington Square To Earl's Court: Cornwall Gardens, British History Online
accessdate: May 28, 2018 The houses are two or three storeys in height.

Bruce Chatwin Charles Bruce Chatwin (13 May 194018 January 1989) was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, ''In Patagonia'' (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storytelling, s ...

lived at No. 9 for a year from April 1969, and later shared the property with the antiques expert Oliver Hoare. The

freehold Freehold may refer to: In real estate *Freehold (law), the tenure of property in fee simple * Customary freehold, a form of feudal tenure of land in England *Parson's freehold, where a Church of England rector or vicar of holds title to benefice ...

of a property "requiring modernisation" on Kynance Mews was listed for sale for £9,000 in 1969 (), with the rental price of a house listed at £40 per week in 1971. By August 1991 the freehold of the "largest house at the prettiest end of the mews" was listed at £325,000 (). The average price of a house on the mews was £2.3 million in 2018.

Filming location

Several films have been shot on location on Kynance Mews. Bell Cottage, No. 13, is the home of

Julie Andrews Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over eight decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Fi ...

's character in '' Star!'' (1968), and a bus picks people up from the mews in a late scene in the film. The hostage taking in the 1982 film ''

Who Dares Wins ''Who Dares Wins'' (, ''O tolmón niká''; Latin: ''Qui audet adipiscitur'' ; ; ; Portuguese: ''Quem ousa vence''; German: ''Wer wagt, gewinnt''; Dutch: ''Wie niet waagt, die niet wint''; Hebrew: המעז מנצח) is a motto made popular in t ...

'' occurs at No. 25.

Pamela Stephenson Pamela Stephenson, Lady Connolly (born 4 December 1949) is a New Zealand-born psychologist, writer, actress and comedian. She moved with her family to Australia in 1953 and studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). After playi ...

lives at No. 23 in 1984's '' Scandalous'' and Susan George cycles from No. 21 during the opening credits of the 1969 film '' Twinky''.

Janet Suzman Dame Janet Suzman (born 9 February 1939) is a South African-born British actress who had a successful early career in the Royal Shakespeare Company, later replaying many Shakespearean roles on television. In her first film, '' Nicholas and Alexa ...

runs down the mews in the 1974 film ''

The Black Windmill ''The Black Windmill'' is a 1974 British spy thriller film directed by Don Siegel and starring Michael Caine, John Vernon, Janet Suzman and Donald Pleasence. It was produced by Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown. Plot Two schoolboys are play ...

'', and

Robert Mitchum Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He is known for his antihero roles and film noir appearances. He received nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. He received a star on the Holl ...

and

Derek Deadman Derek Deadman (11 March 1940 – 22 November 2014) was an English character actor who appeared in numerous British films and television series for 38 years. Family Born 11 March 1940 in Fulham, London, Derek Deadman was one of the three sons o ...

emerge from the western end of the mews in 1978's ''

The Big Sleep ''The Big Sleep'' (1939) is a hardboiled crime novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler, the first to feature the detective Philip Marlowe. It has been adapted for film twice, in 1946 and again in 1978. The story is set in Los A ...

''. On the eastern side of the mews from Launceston Place, No 4. was home to

Leslie Phillips Leslie Samuel Phillips (20 April 1924 – 7 November 2022) was an English actor. He achieved prominence in the 1950s, playing smooth, upper-class comic roles utilising his "Ding dong" and "Hello" catchphrases. He appeared in the '' Carry On'' ...

and

Julie Christie Julie Frances Christie (born 14 April 1940) is a British actress. Christie's accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has appeared in six films ranked in the British Film Institu ...

in '' Crooks Anonymous'' (1962), although the night scenes were filmed in a studio recreation of the mews. No. 10 was the home of

Juliette Binoche Juliette Binoche (; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than 60 films, particularly in French and English, and has been the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Juliette Binoche, numerous accolades, ...

's character in the 1992 film ''

Damage Damage is any change in a thing, often a physical object, that degrades it away from its initial state. It can broadly be defined as "changes introduced into a system that adversely affect its current or future performance".Farrar, C.R., Sohn, H., ...

''. The Mews is home to protagonist Joe in

You (season 4) The fourth season of the American psychological thriller television series ''You'' was ordered by Netflix on October 13, 2021. ''You'' series co-creator Sera Gamble returns as showrunner. Series star Penn Badgley returns as Joe Goldberg and T ...

References

External links

* {{Coord, 51, 29, 50.51, N, 0, 11, 8.23, W, scale:1563_region:GB, display=title Grade II listed houses in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Houses completed in the 19th century Mews streets in London South Kensington Stables Streets in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea