The Royal Mews can be traced as far back as the reign of Richard II when it was based at Charing Cross, on the site of what is now the National Gallery.

The terms ‘Mews’ comes from the French muer and Latin mutare, meaning ‘to change’. This term was applied to the moulting of a hawk or falcon, and then to the caging of the bird. ‘The King’s Mews’ at Charing Cross was originally used to house the king’s falcons. By the 16th century, it was being used to stable horses.

The Royal Mews was transferred to its current site when George III acquired Buckingham Palace (then known as Buckingham House) in 1761. It was rebuilt by John Nash in 1825 during the reign of George IV.

When Queen Victoria became the first Monarch to use Buckingham Palace as her official London home, the Mews became a very busy place which she described as ‘a small village which belongs to Buckingham Palace’. There were often up to 200 horses there at a time. Queen Victoria’s own children learnt to ride in the Riding School, her husband, Prince Albert kept horses there, and the Queen established a school there for the children of Royal Mews workers.

The number of horses needed declined with the advent of rail, car and air travel during the first half of the 20th century. Then, during the Second World War many Mews worked had to leave their jobs to fight. The horses and a skeleton staff were moved to Windsor to avoid the Blitz.

The Buckingham Palace Mews was revived again after the war. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands donated five grey geldings to thank George VI for offering her refuge when Holland was invaded. These Geldings were given the names of men who had played a prominent part in the war: Eisenhower, Cunningham, McCreery, Tedder and Tovey. All were used to pull the Gold State Coach to the Coronation in 1953.

When Prince Charles and Princess Anne were young, she would often bring them to the Mews to feed sugar lumps to the horses.

When The Queen rode in the annual Trooping the Colour Parade (Her Majesty began riding in a carriage from 1987 after the retirement of her regular mount, Burmese) she would often practice riding side-saddle in the riding school for several weeks before the event.

Today, the Mews continues to play an important part in the day-to-day running of the Royal Household. The Queen takes much interest in the work of the Mews, knowing each of the horses by name.