The Notting Hill mews house next door
This handsome four-storey home, nestled on an historic mews in the heart of Notting Hill, benefits from a complete rebuild and vibrant interior design. Its owners are looking for buyers who will enjoy the strong sense of community on the street
The mews houses of Notting Hill feature on many Instagram feeds. Built during the Victorian era as stables for west London’s grand houses, with rooms upstairs for coachmen and other staff, they have become some of the capital’s most desirable – and storied – homes.
Codrington Mews, Notting Hill
Hidden in the heart of Notting Hill, a stone’s throw from the iconic Portobello Road and the area’s many restaurants and cafés, is Codrington Mews, built in the 1860s to service the houses on Blenheim and Elgin Crescents. This tranquil, L-shaped street has just 12 properties, one of which is the muralled headquarters of XL Recordings, where Adele made her second album, 21. Two others are owned by Sophie Jane Masson and Mark Holdsworth.
The couple bought their home here in 2013, renovated it in 2018, then, three years later, bought the mews house next door. “Every mews house has its own unique challenges in terms of space,” says Mark, the owner of a real estate investment company. “Next door was almost the first run of how I learned how to maximise the qualities and the characteristics of our original house. This house was take two – we implemented all the learnings here.”
Refurbishing the mews house
He and Sophie needed that expertise as the property, which took 15 months to overhaul, was quite the project. Owned since the 1940s by the same family, the ground floor still had its original cobbles and tie rings for horses on the walls. There was no internal staircase, only the external one, which led up to the groom’s flat.
Working with their architect, Urban Mesh, the couple carved out a basement – digging down more than four metres to create a generous ceiling height on the lower ground floor, took the whole house back to its brickwork and added a second storey; no mean feat in such a constrained plot.
“We changed the window heights, all the windows and doors – everything is brand new,” Mark explains. “It’s not a refurbishment – it’s a complete rebuild.”
Natural light now floods the 1,800 sq ft, south-facing house through the bifold doors into the open-plan, bespoke kitchen and shines down through the cutout in the floor into the basement reception room. Perfect for entertaining, this space has a cinema system with a drop-down screen in the ceiling and surround-sound Sonos speakers, plus a wine cellar next door.
There’s underfloor heating, air conditioning in the three bedrooms, and every detail of the serene décor has been carefully considered by Sophie, who previously worked in events and finance and then pivoted in her career to interior design, buying and renovating houses.
“Everything you look at should have layers,” she explains. “Notting Hill is famous for colour, vibrancy and music. We wanted to bring in colour, but also not to overwhelm whoever’s going to buy the property.”
The couple hope the buyers will embrace the strong sense of community in Codrington Mews – the residents socialise together, host street parties, have a WhatsApp group and take in each other’s parcels.
“I was really surprised by how quiet and charming the Mews is but, when you step outside, you get the beat of life,” says Sophie. “There’s nowhere else quite like it.”
5 Codrington Mews is for sale with a guide price of £3,300,000
