Qualla: Royal Mews

Royal Mews: Introduction

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit APK, CC BY 4.0. The word "mews" means a place where birds moult. In 1377, English royal hawks were kept at Charing Cross to shed their feathers between hunting seasons, and the building took its name from the French verb muer - to moult. The hawks are long gone. The horses arrived in 1534, after a fire destroyed the king's stables in Bloomsbury. The cream stallions from Hanover came with George I in 1714. The whole place was demolished in the 1820s to make room for Trafalgar Square. None of that history survives at the original site. But the name did. It walked across London with the horses, and now sits in the grounds of Buckingham Palace - a Grade I listed stable yard where a Gold State Coach worth millions waits in a coach house, and where Range Rovers and a Renault Twizy share garage space with carriages older than the United States.

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Image: APK | CC BY 4.0

Royal Mews: From Hawks to Horses

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Laika ac from UK, CC BY-SA 2.0. The original Royal Mews stood at Charing Cross, where Trafalgar Square now lies. For nearly two centuries it housed the royal falcons - prized birds kept caged during their annual moult, which is what "mewing" originally meant. Then in 1534 fire destroyed the Royal Stables in Lom...

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Image: Laika ac from UK | CC BY-SA 2.0

Royal Mews: The Move to Buckingham Palace

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Katie Chan, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the 1760s George III began moving everyday horses to the grounds of Buckingham House, the residence he had acquired in 1762 for his wife. The Riding School, attributed to William Chambers, dates from this period - completed in 1764, with a 54-metre interior where horses are st...

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Image: Katie Chan | CC BY-SA 4.0

Royal Mews: What's in the Coach Houses

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit APK, CC BY 4.0. The collection is unusual because it remains in use. The Gold State Coach is brought out only for coronations and the most extraordinary state occasions - a four-ton gilt extravaganza built for George III in 1762, said to ride so badly that monarchs have complained about it for o...

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Image: APK | CC BY 4.0

Royal Mews: The Modern Fleet

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Oast House Archive, CC BY-SA 2.0. Edward VII established the first garage at the Mews in the early 1900s. Today the official state cars are all painted in a distinctive black-over-claret livery known as Royal Claret. Two 2012 Jaguar XJ limousines carry the registration plates NGN 1 and NGN 2. Three 2022 Range Rov...

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Image: Oast House Archive | CC BY-SA 2.0

Royal Mews: Open to the Public, Closed to the Past

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ricardalovesmonuments, CC BY-SA 4.0. The titular head of the Royal Mews is the Master of the Horse - one of the three great officers of the Royal Household, an inherited dignity going back centuries. The executive head is the Crown Equerry, who lives on site and oversees the department. Around fifty people now live ...

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Image: Ricardalovesmonuments | CC BY-SA 4.0