What the Heck is a Mews?

I Corinthians 4:1:
Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

One of the last things we had heard about on the Red Bus tour was the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace that is open for tours. When we got home Sunday night, we went over our plan for Monday. It was supposed to be the day for tea at the Dorchester. As mentioned in an earlier post, we were so happy with our tea at the West London fellowship, we didn’t really feel we needed to go to the Dorchester. Also, the reservation for tea was smack dab in the middle of the day,  and we wanted to free up our schedule a bit.

We thought the Royal Mews sounded great—the place where the queen’s coaches and cars and horses are stored and stewarded. Kind of like a garage/stable/restoration place all in one. So we said, “We’ll go there. Then we’ll hop on the Red Bus again, ride it to the London Eye, ride that, then get on a boat that’s part of the price of the Red Bus Tour and take it to Greenwich (a lovely town that people at fellowship had told us about).” In Greenwich is the Royal Observatory and the prime meridian. We wanted to take a photo straddling the prime meridian and thus be in the eastern hemisphere and the western hemisphere at the same time.

So come Monday morning, we took a walk from our flat in Ormonde Gate near the Royal Hospital to the corner of Buckingham Palace where the Royal Mews is located. We are really staying in a beautiful neighborhood, and the walk was lovely.

 There was almost no one in line when we got to the Mews. 

Brenda truly desires a cape like this!

There were some women in the courtyard who worked there and Brenda asked them if the coats they were wearing were warm. They said, "No." But they were cool looking. 














We got some little headphones to listen to a recorded commentary and began walking around the grounds. The mews is a working stable in a courtyard type configuration. In addition to the horses, the coaches that the queen rides in  different occasions were there as well as her automobiles. The jobs of those who care for the horses and coaches and cars have been in the same families for years. The gentleman who is caretaker of the carriages is fourth-generation. Many people who work there are related: fathers/sons/ cousins. They live on the grounds of the Mews in small apartments over the top of the garages and stables, families on one side of the courtyard; singles and couples on the other side of the courtyard. Brenda found it fascinating because it’s similar to what she knows of the loyalty found in the race horse industry in Lexington, Kentucky. On the recording, we were told the Royal Mews workers do their jobs with pride because they want these royal traditions to be available to the succeeding generations. (Sounds like the same reason some of us do our jobs.)

It was really interesting to see these carriages and coaches, some of which had been around for a long, long time. The restoration work is done here too, so some very skilled craftsmen are involved.  The guides who worked there were very willing to talk to us and share the knowledge that they had. While we were on tour, one of the Bentleys came driving in and several horses were seen. As mentioned, it’s a working stable.