The secret gardens and squares near mews

There are many benefits as a London mews resident – the pretty mews exterior, characterful accommodation and living within a neighbourly community. Most mews streets are also a short walk from many well-maintained, peaceful gardens and squares that offer something for everyone away from the bustle of the city.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) has over 78 hectares of well-maintained green space, including two cemeteries and around 30 parks; carefully maintained by the charity London Garden Trust.  Some are important historically, including Kensington Park Gardens, Holland Park and the Royal Hospital. 

Across this Royal Borough and beyond, these public, private and residential communal gardens are rich in history, home to fine specimen trees, established planting and Victorian features.  They provide year-round havens for horticulturalists, and dendrophiles (tree-lovers), as well as giving locals, visitors, families and children a place to picnic, play and relax. Here are some well-known gardens and squares, but also some secret gardens that we believe deserve a visit; most are open on a Sunday and many offer activities, refreshments and children’s playgrounds which are ideal for a family day out.

Kynance Mews SW7 has direct access to The Growing Space located in the south grounds of Christ Church in Kensington.  It includes the beautifully rebuilt retaining wall along Kynance Mews.  Five years ago, it opened as an edible and woodland garden.  Now it is an urban oasis reconnecting the community and residents of all ages with nature and growing food in eight raised beds.  There is a woodland forest school garden, sensory border and greenhouse. Visitors can get involved in sensory and gardening activities and have an opportunity to buy potted herbs and strawberry plants.  

Many Mews are found in the ‘Pembridge Conservation Area’ – including Garden Mews, Linden Mews, Pencombe Mews, Portobello Mews, Rosehart Mews and Victoria Grove Mews.

Pembridge Mews W11 is a cobbled cul-de-sac off Pembridge Crescent near Portobello Road in Notting Hill. Originally, it was the stables for the large houses on Pembridge and Chepstow Crescents.  In World War II was bombed.  Today, it contains 24 properties used for residential and commercial purposes with benches for passers-by and local residents. 

Lying within this Conservation Area, Pembridge Mews is a four-minute walk to the award-winning garden at Pembridge Square built between 1856 and 1864 for the Square’s residents. The private communal garden has been named ‘best garden in north Kensington and best large private garden square’.  This long rectangular garden surrounded by railings and a privet hedge, features a fine woodland area, wild flowers at the east end, a rose garden in the west and a long herbaceous border, as well as a hornbeam maze and children’s play area. Queen’s Gate Mews SW7 is a hidden-away cul-de-sac framed by trees, where iron balconies, lovely Victorian street lamps, bright window boxes, and tables and chairs for residents to socialise, make this one of South Kensington’s most attractive mews streets. 

When the sun goes down, everyone heads to The Queen’s Arms – a friendly local pub on the corner. From the Mews it is an 8-minute walk, which passes the Natural History Museum to get to Queen’s Gate Gardens SW7. 

Queen’s Gate Gardens SW7 were created in the 1860s on the site of former market gardens. Today’s landscaping largely retains the original Victorian layout, and the old mulberry and catalpa trees are believed to be at least 150 years old. Circles visible in the lawn mark WWII underground bomb shelters. A carpet of bluebells and blossom provide a real ‘wow’ factor in spring, while the garden brings joy and a sense of community to its members all year round with four adult swings and a children’s adventure play area with a sandpit. Mews such as Brook Mews North (2-mins) and Lancaster Gate (9-mins) are ideally situated near Kensington Park Gardens, but also Cleveland Square W2 in Bayswater, which lies a little to the north of Hyde Park.  Surrounded by Grade II listed white stucco-fronted houses, Cleveland Square dates from around 1855 and its garden square extends to 1.5 acres comprising lawns, gravel paths and mature trees, which have been replanted to create a sense of a private intimate garden rather than a park; it is open to the public every Saturday.  The garden has three lovely silver birches and features some woodland planting with foxgloves and ferns; many herbaceous perennials -dark purple/black poppies and early-to-late peonies mix with alliums, lupins and iris.

Residents and the local community use the square for relaxation, exercise and events, including open-air theatre – ‘Shakespeare in the Square’. For over 25 years, Cleveland Square has hosted The South East Bayswater Residents Associations (SEBRA) annual summer party where residents of Westminster assemble and make merry. This three-acre communal garden just off Warrington Crescent, has been named London’s best large private garden square. It dates back to World War I when an enemy aircraft mistook the canals of Little Venice for the Thames, and destroyed some of the housing. In the 1970s, local residents successfully defeated the Church Commissioners’ plans to change the garden into car parking. Today, the garden is surrounded by stucco-fronted houses dating from around 1865, including a Grade II listed balconied terrace. The garden has large lawns, many mature trees, mainly London planes, island beds, a children’s play area and many unusual plants and shrubs.