History notes: Warren Mews

Warren Mews, like Warren Street, is named after Anne Warren (1738-1807) — daughter of Lady Susannah (DeLancey) Warren (1707-1771) and Sir Peter Warren (1703-1752), and wife of Charles Fitzroy (1737-1798) who developed the land in the northern part of Fitzrovia in the late 18th century.

For over 100 years many of the mews buildings in Fitzrovia contained stables and workshops for a thriving furniture manufacturing industry until around the time of the First World War when the trade went into decline.

The above archive image of Warren Mews in 1897 was taken by Adolphe Augustus Boucher of Bedford Lemere, a photography firm specialising in architectural images.

“The Bedford Lemere daybook has recorded ‘Maple’s’ on the subject of the negative and that [William] Woodward was the architect. At the end of the 19th century Warren Mews was occupied by cabinet makers, bookbinders and a forge,” states the Historic England archive record for the image.

Maple’s was a furniture and upholstery manufacturer which had a very large store on Tottenham Court Road.

The part of the mews shown in the photos was developed after 1801, later than the other buildings in the mews, according to maps describing the Fitzroy Square Conservation Area.

During the 19th century the western side of the mews may have been used as stabling for sick horses by Maple and Company, and was from 1920 as workshops for Louis Koch Ltd a furniture restorer which had a shop at 106 Cleveland Street.

These 19th century buildings on the left in the archive photo were rebuilt during the late 1980s and are now in residential use. The 19th century building at the end of the mews has also been altered and is now residential.

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