* “St. George’s Square Mews”-SW1 – “London’s Mews Streets & Houses-Pt7”

Last week, under a reasonably bright, but still a bit nippy London sky, my London Shoes went on a mission to check-out another one of London’s many unique mews streets, (Shoes likes a bit of ‘Mews’) – to add another blog article to the my on-going and, it would seem (from feedback received) very popular category of ‘London’s -Mews Streets & Houses’.

The mews street in question for this publication is:-

 “ST. GEORGE’s SQUARE MEWS” – PIMLICO – LONDON SW1

St George’s Square Mews in Pimlico, is a historic cobbled ‘mews street’ of around 24 mews houses that were originally built between the 1830’s and 1870’s.

It’s located close to the River Thames, just off of Aylesford Street, deep in the heart of Pimlico in the SW1 district, near to Westminster.

As with most of London’s mews houses/properties, they were built to provide stable and coach house accommodation for the larger, Georgian houses in nearby main streets, in this particular case the nearby ‘posh’ St George’s Square.

The mews streets consisted of small two-storey brick-built properties that provided stable and coach accommodation for the horses/carriages on the ground floor – with tiny little rooms upstairs for the grooms and servant staff, working for the owners of the big mansion type houses nearby – usually in the next street.

However – as time and social environment evolved, the horses and carriages and the groom staff and servants, were no longer required and several of London’s mews houses were no longer any use to those wealthy home owners, and as a result many of them fell into serious disrepair. There are social maps in existence that indicate many of these mews streets and houses were actually classified as ‘slums’.

During WW2 the St. George’s Square Mews took a hit during the Blitz and a few of the properties down there had to be rebuilt.

However – in the years following WW2, ‘St. George;s Square Mews’ along with London’s other mews houses, began to become more and more fashionable – as people bought them up (very cheaply at the beginning) and converted the properties, including their stables, into up exclusive residential homes.

By the time of London’s ‘Swinging’ 60’s these mews houses, like those of ‘St. George’s Square Mews’ – had become desirable and very much in demand as private dwellings – especially amongst the wealthy/film stars/pop starts and other celebs.

Today (2026) – a mews house property in “St. George’s Square Mew’s” would set you back anything between £2m to £3:5m

Quite rightly St. George’s Square Mews is a ‘protected’ residential area within the ‘Pimlico Conservation Area’ – ensuring that new developments or alterations to the buildings are regulated – which means its old, cobbled road surfaces – its colourful front doors – its unusual roofing styles and its quaint fixtures & fittings and the unique history behind them, can continue to be enjoyed by future generations.

So – having located and explored the impressive ‘St. George’s Square Mews’ – it was time for my London Shoes, as per usual, to partake in a little liquid refreshment – and after pounding the Pimlico pavements, I stumbled upon a pub called the “Morpeth Arms”.

The ‘Morpeth Arms’ is a Grade II Listed pub located on a street called Millbank – just a short walk along the River Thames from Westminster.

It was built in 1845 as a pub for the prison warders working at nearby Millbank Prison.

Millbank Prison opened in 1816 and was the place where prisoners would be banged-up before being deported to Australia.

Now – here’s an interesting thing…..it is believed in some quarters that the derogatory term “POMS” that the Aussies use when referring to us Brits, is an abbreviation of “Prisoners Of Millbank”…..who knew!!!!!!

The pubs cellar was used to hold prisoners before they were transported off to Oz. There were tunnels under the Morpeth Arms that linked the pub to the prison – and it is said that a prisoner once tried escaping from the Prison down one of these tunnels, but died down there, and according to local folklore, he now haunts the pub.

Anyway – the Morpeth Arms was an ideal place for my London Shoes to enjoy a quick ‘cheeky’ one – before hopping on a train at Pimlico tube station and heading off home.

Hope you enjoyed another of London Shoes ‘Mews’ blogs – and its accompanying photos.

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