The Royal Mews (Site of Trafalgar Square)

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Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of Charing with a look at the Royal Mews:

Trafalgar Square was built over the site of what was formerly the Royal Mews, a building of very ancient foundation; and a rookery of obscure and ill-famed lanes and alleys on the west and north of St. Martin's Church, popularly known as the Bermudas, and afterwards the Caribbean Islands.

In the midst of the mews stood a small and remarkable building called Queen Elizabeth's Bath.

It is almost impossible to estimate the difference between the then and the now, in regard to this particular part.

St. Martin's Lane continued right up to Northumberland House, where the lion of the proud Percies stiffened his tail on the parapet.

The house stood across the present head of Northumberland Avenue.

The Royal Mews themselves were where the fountains now splash, and on the further side of them was Hedge Lane.

Pennant says the Mews was so called from having been used for the King's falcons - at least, from the time of Richard III to Henry VIII.

In the latter King's reign the royal horses were stabled here, but the name Mews was retained, and has come to be applied to any town range of stabling.

The mews were removed to make way for the National Gallery about 1834.

Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet, was Clerk of the King's Works, and of the Mews at Charing about the end of Richard II's reign.

During the Commonwealth Colonel Joyce was imprisoned in the Mews by order of Oliver Cromwell.

Next: Trafalgar Square