Part of | Gunter Estate |
---|---|
Type | Mews street |
Location | Earl's Court, London |
Postal code | SW5 |
Coordinates | 51°29′30″N0°11′24″W / 51.4916°N 0.1901°W |
Construction | |
Construction start | 1884-85 |
Hesper Mews is a mews street in the Earl's Court district of London, England. It runs between Bramham Gardens and Collingham Gardens and was laid-out in 1884-85 as part of the Gunter Estate, developed in the nineteenth century by James Gunter and his descendants.
Houses in the Mews are much smaller than in the higher-class streets adjacent and were used as accommodation for servants and stabling for horses. Later they were home to drivers and their vehicles, and from the mid-twentieth century were increasingly occupied by middle and upper-class families.
Hesper Mews was laid out in 1884-85 as part of the Gunter Estate which was developed by James Gunter and his descendants in the nineteenth century. [1] The origin of its name is unknown. [2]
The Mews are to the east of Earls Court Road and immediately to the south of Barkston Gardens which was built by the Gunters on the site of the former Earl's Court House. [1] The area was largely rural before the Gunter family began to develop it and the Mews lie on farmland formerly known as Four Acre Court Field and part of Great Courtfield. [1]
They are in the Earl's Court district of London, England, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and run between Bramham Gardens and Collingham Gardens and largely parallel to Bramham Gardens. There are three closes on the north side. [3]
The Survey of London write that mews were of "considerable importance" to the Gunter Estate, with Hesper Mews the last mews to be laid out, in 1884–85, "the biggest and finest" and "on generous lines". [1] It is one of the few mews on the Estate that is accessed from the higher status streets around it through a normal street entrance rather than through an archway. [1] Nonetheless, the role of mews houses as accommodation for servants, particularly coachmen, with stabling on the ground floor for their employer's horses, [4] [5] is evident from the street plan with the houses in Barkston Gardens and Bramham Gardens, on to which the mews back, being much larger than those in Hesper Mews.
The British Architect commented in 1886, with reference to houses in Collingham Gardens, with which the Mews were also associated, that the stables in Hesper Mews were "quite out of sight" of Collingham Gardens, [6] reflecting the need at the time for rich and poor to have "proximate but separate lives". [4] As the horse gave way to the motor car, the coachmen of London's mews were replaced by, or found new employment as, chauffeurs and drivers with the ground floor used as garages for their vehicles, [7] but, in the mid and later twentieth century, as the original leases ended and London's mews became gentrified, mews houses were increasingly occupied by middle and upper-class families. [8]
Notable former residents include:
William Kent was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, but his real talent was for design in various media.
Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the sub-districts of South Kensington to the east, Chelsea to the south and Kensington to the northeast. It lent its name to the now defunct eponymous pleasure grounds opened in 1887 followed by the pre–World War II Earls Court Exhibition Centre, as one of the country's largest indoor arenas and a popular concert venue, until its closure in 2014.
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Devonshire Close, originally known as Devonshire Mews East, is a mews street in the City of Westminster, London, accessed from Devonshire Street. The Close is on a distinctive H plan with a middle downwards leg. It dates from the 1770s and originally contained a timber yard, stables, and accommodation for domestic servants who worked in the larger houses surrounding it. Access was limited to the north side in order to divert traffic from the grander north–south streets around it. The Close was gentrified in the 20th century and its buildings converted to mews houses which, like other mews in London, have become desirable in the modern era because they are quiet and have little traffic. The Close is now part of the Howard de Walden Estate.
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Media related to Hesper Mews at Wikimedia Commons