Mew

After admittedly never having thought about it before, I learned what a mew is last night. In addition to being a noise often made by kittens and some adult cats, the word mews refers to an old stable block. Like with horses. Of course, Anglos flock to conversion properties like Southerners flock to fried chicken, so today mews serve as very desirable urban streets.

Those of you that have been to London may have come across a mew or two. They are generally named - like the Margo Mews or Fulham Mews - but are also recognizable as being narrow cobbled streets, generally dead ends, lined with two story flat-fronted buildings. In the movie Love Actually, Keira Knightley's character lived in a mew house. As they were built to house the horses for the nearby stately manors, there should be larger terraced houses within the same block fronting the main street.

Converted mews are, as mentioned above, quite desirably addresses. A show on property prices in London showed a newly converted mews property in Kensington that was expected to go for £6 million. It apparently had a lot of 'bespoke' features.... Anyways, I think some of this attraction (aside from the pure and utter joy of living in a converted property) comes from the layout of mews, which are essentially the much cuter, quainter, cobbled cousin of 'home zones', with no definition between space for pedestrians and space for vehicles.

The relevation of the original intent of the mews shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, as the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace serve as a year-round tourist attraction. Items on view include fancy outfits worn by coaches (those who drive carriages, not those who lead sports teams) and royal carriages. Personally I think perhaps it's time the Queen upgrade to motor vehicles, not only are they faster, but it would also then open the royal mew for residential conversion...

And finally, let's discuss the other sorts of properties that the Anglos like to convert (as seen on UK property shows): barns (including dairies), churches, windmills, and lighthouses. In the future people will live in converted Tescos.