Mews film locations: 7 famous mews streets featured in iconic movies

It’s that time of year when the film and entertainment industry steps into the limelight to celebrate last year’s epic performances – from actors in front of the camera, directors behind and composers of haunting film scores that resonate after the credits roll. The Golden Globes have kicked off the award season, the Baftas take place in London on the 16^th February and the Oscars follow stateside on the 3^rd March. 

Lights, camera, action

And guess what? The mews plays a part both on and off screen as a favoured film location and private London home to several award-winning actors. Let’s also not forget multiple (16 actually) Grammy winner, Adele who moved to a Notting Hill mews after the song, ‘Hometown Glory’ catapulted her into stardom. The connection between the big screen, actors and London mews isn’t a new one. In fact, since the swinging sixties, the mews have taken centre stage as glamorous, rather eclectic and ‘trendy’ places to live and appear on screen. Rock stars, actors, entertainers, authors and politicians started to seek privacy in the cobbled corners of central London, where they could easily jump out of a car and enter their front door to escape prying eyes and the paparazzi.

Actors at home in the Mews

At this time the London mews began to be a location chosen by film directors, raising their popularity and bringing them to more people’s attention as they appeared on the big screen.  Located just outside the Portobello Road Market, Number 18 Denbigh Close featured for the first time in the movie The Italian Job (1969). In a famous scene, Lorna, Michael Caine’s girlfriend, catches him in his home full of colourful junk with three very attractive girls. Scared by the woman’s rage, the three young girls run off in bikinis much to the amusement of the officers watching the house. Oscar, Bafta and Golden Globe winner, Michael Caine has owned several mews houses during his life.  The last of which was located in nearby Albion Close, a delightful property that the actor sold for about £5 million.

The Romance of Notting Hill

Only a ten-minute walk from the aforementioned Denbigh Close, is picture-perfect Luke Mews, where movie buffs regularly make a pilgrimage.  At Number 27 is the pink house that appears in Love Actually (2003) where actor Andrew Lincoln declares his love for Keira Knightley’s character, Julie. Despite this mews, like many others in London, having suffered damage from wartime bombing, it retains immense charm and character.

A super-short seven-minute stroll from Portobello Road via Ladbroke Road passes under a Grade II listed arch dated 1862 at the western entrance of Holland Park Mews.  Among the 67 period properties built between 1860 and 1879, is the home of former resident and distinguished actor, Ian Holm, who starred in major films including Chariots of Fire, Lord of the Rings and Alien.  The properties display fine architectural features of the time with original bandeau windows, wrought iron staircases leading to balconies and even water pumps from a bygone era.

Madonna’s Mews in SW7

Kensington is similarly peppered with intriguing and photogenic traditional mews from the mid-nineteenth century. Since 1969, the area known as ‘Queen’s Gate’ has been a designated Conservation Area, comprised of grand stucco houses, leafy garden squares and lovely mews. Queen’s Gate Mews contains 86 properties on a cobbled through-road, with four additional cul-de-sac sections off Queen’s Gate Terrace in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, leading to Gloucester Road. Well-known performer Madonna and her former husband and film director, Guy Ritchie have lived in Queen’s Gate Mews. Ritchie and director Matthew Vaughn also used the mews to shoot Layer Cake (2004) staring Daniel Craig. Other films – Performance (1970), The Bank Job (2008) with Jason Statham also feature scenes shot in Queen’s Gate Mews.

 

Superman’s South Ken Mews

Suave British actor, Henry Cavill, who played Superman in the DC Extended Universe films Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), and Justice League (2017), can be found relaxing in his mews house in South Kensington when he’s not jetting around the world making blockbuster movies. He said of his mews:

 “I don’t have a man cave, I have a small mews house in London, which was once an old stable that’s been converted into houses over the years. It’s not big.”

It seems that South Kensington is not only sought after by buyers looking for a luxury mews house, but appeals to film makers. Kynance Mews featured a lot in the Netflix series, ‘You’. Home to the main character Joe Goldberg, he confirms he lives in South Kensington in a voiceover in episode one when he introduces us to his new London life; there’s a fleeting shot of the street name, also genuinely located in South Kensington. This sleepy street is a quintessential West London sight: pretty, leafy and extremely clean, with a hushed, museum-like quiet. In Joe’s words, it’s like some place in a “Hugh Grant movie”.  The street Joe strolls down in the scene-setting shots approaching his house – and the location of the façade of his friendly neighbours Malcolm and Kate’s apartment – was filmed at Cornwall Gardens, also in South Kensington.

The secrets of Stanhope Mews South

The mews house at the end of Stanhope Mews South in South Kensington is Harry’s house in Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014). This spy action comedy includes Colin Firth, who plays Harry Hart and also has an Oscar, Golden Globe and Bafta to his name, along with a stellar cast made up of Taron Egerton, Mark Strong and Samuel L. Jackson.

It seems that the mews in London, so prettily perfect on the outside, present the ideal cinematic foil and plot twist to disguise dark characters and sinister events on the inside, from gangster movies to modern day crime. The popularity and the kerb appeal of London’s mews never wanes.  They really do capture the essence of our mesmerising city and its intriguing residents. Whether it’s on or off screen, there’s something about our mews that deserves all the accolades in 2025.