Mount Row was formed from two stable yards.
The longer of the yards was entered from Davies Street and the shorter, originally known as Bishop’s Yard, from Charles Street (now Carlos Place).
They were divided in part by a wall and in part by a workshop which jutted out into the mews approximately in front of the present No. 13 and which was for many years part of the premises of the cabinet-making and upholstery concern of Marsh and Tatham and their successors.
This separation had come about because William and Benjamin Benson, the first occupants of the old Nos. 45 and 46 Grosvenor Street, had the benefit of a building agreement for a plot of land which extended the whole depth between Grosvenor Street and Mount Street, and refused to give up parts of their plot for a public stable yard, William Benson compounding matters by building a wall along the western edge of his plot. The small yard on the west side of this wall was known as Bishop’s Yard because it served the stables belonging to No. 43 Grosvenor Street, whose first occupant was Bishop Benjamin Hoadly. The two mews were joined together when the east side of Carlos Place and the adjacent part of Mount Street were rebuilt in 1891–3.
The north side of Mount Row was taken up with coach houses and stabling but on the south side there were a number of small houses. Seven of these, on either side of the entrance to Carpenter Street and including the Oliver’s Mount public house on the west corner with that street, were built by John Jenner, bricklayer. He himself lived in one of them, and after his early death in 1728 his widow continued to live there in impoverished circumstances, while several of the other houses were let by the room.
The north side of Mount Row has been completely rebuilt or refronted within the last half of the 20th century, in some cases with the same kind of commercial buildings of little interest to be found in Brook’s Mews or Grosvenor Hill, but also with one range of buildings, all dating from 1926 to 1931, of considerable distinction and charm.
