The client for this project owned a house with a long rear garden which bordered a backstreet mews. There was no building fronting the mews but historical research established that there had previously been a building on this land. Working with Douglas and King Architects, a scheme was developed for a new house which reinterpreted the mews typology in a contemporary architectural language. While the mews elevation respected the scale of adjacent properties, we secured permission for a house of substantially greater depth than is typical of a mews property having an overall area of 133 square metres. The application was approved on first submission.