The Kings Mews, Charing Cross.
Post in preparation.
One in a series of posts relating to the St Martin's Lane Academy and the local environment in the mid 18th century.
The Great Mews Size approx. 370 x 240 ft.
Green Mews depth about 130 ft. (belonging to the Earl of Leicester in the 17th Century).
Leicester Fields (by 1678 Square) to the west was laid out in 1631, along with Leicester House on the North side (demolished 1791).
Parallel with the East side of Leicester Fields, Castle Street first appeared in the rate books in 1676
Archbishop Tennisons Library, Castle Street was built in 1683.
The Royal Mews. — A plan of the Royal Mews, taken at the
close of the eighteenth century, shows that they occupied the centre of a space
which extended from the site of the National Portrait Gallery to within 75 ft.
of the statue of King Charles. The great Mews was about 370 feet in depth by
about 240 feet in width. At the farther end were the Royal Stables with a depth
of 50 feet, and in rear the Green Mews, which had a depth of 130 feet.
The Royal Mews was transferred to Pimlico in 1824 prior to the demolitions and replacement by Trafalgar Square
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The Mews.
Copy of a map of 1578.
.jpg)
Map of the Area, Dated 1658.
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The King's Mews.
Plan by an unidentified architect 17th/18th Century.
Certainly made prior to the building of the central block by William Kent in 1732.
Image courtesy RIBA.
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For a useful essay and list of the Department and Master of the Horse see -
https://courtofficers.ctsdh.luc.edu/STABLES.list.pdf
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An Unidentified Plan of the Mews.
1720's?
Prior to 1730 and William Kent's rebuilding of the North Range of the Great Mews.
British Library.
From the Kings Topographical Collection.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/50265373962
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The Dung Hill Mews.
Formerly The Duke of Monmouth's Mews.
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Called the Little Mews on the Roque Map of 1740.
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John Vardy's design for Alterations to the King's Mews, which must post date the rebuilding of the central block by William Kent in1732.
c 1736 - 40.
John Vardy (February
1718 – 17 May 1765).
Another low resolution image from the RIBA.
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The North Range of the Great Mews designed by William Kent.
with Central arch to the Green Mews.
Built 1732/33.
A preliminary sketch section of the Kings Mews by William Kent
1731
Housing fifty-six stalls for the crown’s horses, the stables
replaced an older Royal Mews on the same site.
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:10840
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Engraving by Benjamin Cole (1697 -1783).
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J Maurer.
1747.
Engraving.
British Museum.
Crop of the Maurer engraving.
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View looking East from William Kent's building of 1732.
Samuel Wale c. 1760.
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Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), The King's Mews, Charing Cross, 1790–91,
pen and ink on paper, 18.3 × 13.1 cm, 7 ¼ × 5 ⅛ in.
London
Metropolitan Archives (p5422289).
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Thomas Malton, 1794.
Image used with permission from the London Picture Archive.
https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?i=312926&WINID=1718118891518
For Thomas Malton's Picturesque Tour.
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1880-0911-1268
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Kent's Building in 1793.
Image Courtesy Royal Collection.
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Excerpt from The Story of Charing Cross and its Immediate Neighbourhood by Macmichael, J. Holden pub. 1906.
"Another Mews Gate stood "next Hedge Lane." This Hedge Lane (now Witcombe Street) entrance was in the Back Mews, almost exactly opposite to the present Spring Gardens entrance to St. James's Park, which was a passage-way with the Red Lion inn at the corner.
In some year closely subsequent to 1785
strict rules were issued for the porter at the Mews Gate next Charing Cross
" to suffer no loose, idle, or suspicious persons, or women of the town,
to lurk or harbour near the mews ; to shut the gate next Hedge Lane as soon as
it is dusk, and the gate next Charing Cross at ten at night, and to prevent
mobs or riots of loose, idle, and disorderly people." ^ In the latter half
of the eighteenth century Aldridge's appear to have rescued the Royal Mews from
a situation which was anything but creditable to the office of Master of the
Horse, for the Mews had become quite a horse-fair and rendezvous for those in
quest of all the usual paraphernalia of the stable and the coach-house. So much
so, indeed, that in 1785 stringent orders were issued to reform "abuses
that have been practised in the mews," viz. the " buying and selling
horses and chaises, harness and carriages, by which means the mews has been
made a kind of trading-place, to the great dishonour of the King; any servant
found guilty of such practises shall be discharged."
Probably there were abuses also among the higher officers of his Majesty's stables. With the corruption in other quarters, it would be an exceptional circumstance in the management of the nation's affairs if there were not.
In the ninth year of George I. the list of officers and servants was as follows :
Gentleman of the Horse Avenar '' and Clark Martial
Four Pages of Honour
Two "Equeries" of the Crown Stable .
One Sergeant of the Carriages.
Yeoman of the Carriages.
Supervisor of the Highways.
Supervisor of the Stables.
Two Yeoman Riders Clerk of the Avery.
Stables Storekeeper
Esquire Sadler
Yeoman Sadler
Sergeant Farrier
Marshal Farrier
Yeoman Farrier
Two Coachmakers
Four Purveyors
Riding Purveyor
Mews-keeper
Four Stable-keepers
Thirteen Footmen
Five Coachmen
Five Postilions
Five Helpers
Four Chairmen
Two Chaise Helpers
Thirteen Grooms
Gentleman-Armourer
Page of the Back Stairs,
Porter of the Mews
"Castle Street partook of the art traditions of St. Martin's Lane, for here dwelt Benjamin West, who made it his first London residence, and Sir Robert Strange, the eminent engraver, who, like many others who had fought for the Stuart cause, found a home in London between 1765 and 1774. In 1769 he published "A Descriptive Catalogue of a Collection of Pictures selected from the Roman, Florentine, Lombard, Venetian, Neapolitan, Flemish, French, and Spanish Schools, with remarks on the principal painters and their works, with a hst of thirty-two designs from the best compositions of the great masters, collected and drawn during a tour of several years in Italy." ^ I conceive that it was not the Charing Cross entrance to the Mews, but the Upper Mews Gate at the lower end of Castle Street, that became a bookseller's corner, whence doubtless many a valued work passed into the Tenison Library. " A small number of Francis Drake's History and Antiquities of the City of York, illustrated with 109 Copper Plates," were advertised to be sold by "T. Taylor, the Corner of the Mews Gate, at j£i iis. 6d. bound, this Day, and no longer ; after which they will be kept at the original Price, viz. yQ2 12s. bd. in Sheets."^ At the Mews Gate also dwelt "honest Tom Payne," the bookseller,'' whose little shop in the shape of an L was named the Literary Coffee-house, from its knot of literary frequenters. He was for some time assisted by Edward Noble, and from 1789 to 1797 another of his assistants was John Hatchard, the founder of Hatchard's in Piccadilly. While with Payne, Hatchard lived close by in Monmouth Court, Whitcomb Street".
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Keepers of the Great Mews at London.
see - https://www.british-history.ac.uk/office-holders/vol11/pp621-624#h3-s2
For an excellent in depth study of staff at the Kings Mes etc see also -
https://courtofficers.ctsdh.luc.edu/STABLES.list.pdf
c. 1669–1685; 1689–1837
1689. 28 Feb. Conery, B.
1690. 20 Jan. Eagle, T.
1702. 6 July Lewis, J.
1741. 28 July Dagley, T.
1747. 2 July Stickman, J.
1749. 26 Apr. Mercadie, J.
1750. 28 Apr. Montague, J.
1773. 4 May Lloyd, E.
1800. 21 July Spanswick, J.
1829. 3 Aug. Hiley, C.
1830. 6 Nov. Brock, W.
Keeper of the Upper Mews c. 1669–1685.
By 1669. Ashley,
R.
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Study of the Interior of Kent's Building. 1808.
Probably by Joseph Stadler, for Ackerman. (see below).
Looking South East.
Image Courtesy Art Institute of Chicago.
https://www.artic.edu/artworks/113171/study-for-king-s-mews-charing-cross-from-microcosm-of-london
The published image from Ackermann Microcosm of London, 1808, Aquatint.
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Sketch of the Kent Building, 1827.
George Scharf.
British Museum.
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Plan of the Kings Mews, 1798.
Plan of the Kings Mews.
Based on a survey by Thomas Chawner of 84 Guildford St, dated 19 June 1796.
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https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol20/pt3/pp7-14
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The East side of the Kings Mews.
Viewed from the front of William Kent's building.
Looking South East.
Circa 1820.
William Henry Hunt (1790 - 1864).
Yale Centre for British Art.
In 1806 Hunt
persuaded his father to allow him to train as an artist, becoming
apprenticed for a term of seven years to John Varley, the watercolourist,
drawing master, astrologer, and a close friend of William Blake. Hunt exhibited three oil
paintings at the Royal Academy in 1807 and continued to exhibit there for
several years following. In 1808 he was admitted as a student to the Royal
Academy Schools.
Hunt's uncle, a butcher, is recorded as having said of the artist, "He was always a poor cripple, and as he was fit for nothing, they made an artist of him."
Hunt had deformed legs that hampered his
movement and may well have contributed to his eventual abandonment of landscape
work in favor of still life and figures
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For the study of the Mews this is a very important drawing So far this is the only illustration of any of the buildings within the Kings Mews except for Kent's rebuilding of the North range of 1732/3.
Low resolution image from YCBA.
This image appears to have been taken from a book or magazine.
I am very grateful to Rhyannon van Allsteyn of the YCBA for providing me with this image.
There is a black and white illustration of the same watercolour drawing in the Survey of London XX - 1940 plate 3. The source is given as (Westminster) Council's Collection. (included below).
The resolution is slightly higher.
I will attempt to get a copy of the original in due course.
This image depicts the long barn which occupied almost the whole of the East side of the Great Mews.
Hopefully a better image will appear in due course.
Approx. 30 ft Wide x 300 ft Long.
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Below The Great Barn from the Chawner Survey of 1798.
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The Mews Gateway at Charing Cross.
Engraving.
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View from St Martin's Lane just prior to demolition for the construction of Trafalgar Square.
The Pedimented building is the new Royal College of Physicians.
From Haunted London by Walter Thornbury pub 1865. the houses on the west side of the Lane have already been demolished.
Compare with a similar view by George Scharf.
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Yenn was born on 8 March 1750. He was a student at the Royal
Academy from September 1769. He was elected an associate of the academy in 1774
and a full academician in 1791. He served as treasurer of the academy from 1796
to 1820.
He was a pupil of Sir William Chambers. In the late 1770s he
succeeded Chambers as the Duke of Marlborough's architect at Blenheim Palace,
where his works included, in 1789, the design of the small Corinthian
"Temple of Health", built to celebrate the recovery of George III
from illness. Nearby, in 1783, he built a new aisle at Woodstock church.
Chambers provided him with a number of other important positions: in 1780 he
became the Clerk of the Works at Richmond Park, and he later held the same
position at Kensington Palace, Buckingham House and at the Royal Mews.
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View looking West from the steps of St Martin's in the Field.
1827.
George Scharf.
British Museum.
George Scharf.
1830.
Looking up from the corner of St Martin's Lane and Charing Cross to the gap where the houses to the east of the Mews have been demolished opposite St Martin in the Fields.
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