Daryl:
In the urban London sense a mews is (or was) a courtyard, lane, alley, ect., faced by a stable. While the stables are now gone, some side streets and alleyways still retain the name "Mews." The original meaning was a place where hunting hawks were kept, and modern falconers will still use the term to describe their hawk houses. For more info, Wickipedia has a superb discussion of the word "mews" that demonstrates the complexity and adapatbility of the English language--kifaru