Ruston Mews, W11 was originally Crayford Mews.
Crayford Mews (as Ruston Mews was first called) was built around 1865. The early properties were two storey mews houses and were used to provide shelter for horses, carriages and drivers of that era with a first floor flat for human accommodation and stabling for the carriages and animals underneath. The houses behind Crayford Mews in Lancaster Road were built earlier during the period 1855 to 1858 as part of the St Quentin estate development when speculative house building was rampant in this part of London.
At some time during the early 1900s, Crayford Mews changed its name to Ruston Mews.
The Mews gave its name to Rillington Place, opposite when that particular street desperately needed a new name.
The post-war regeneration of London started to affect the Notting Hill area in the 1960s when it became fashionable to live in a mews house. At the time Ruston Mews was a rough cobbled street with a collapsing wall bordering the rough ground leading up to the railway.
With the growth of the London housing market in the 1960s, more projects were proposed. Ruston Close was demolished in the 1970s to make way for the Bartle Road & St Andrew's Square developments and the rough ground lying between Ruston Mews and the railway tracks became the site for 20 new houses in the mews.
During the new house construction, the old granite setts (cobbles) that had been there for more than a century were removed in order to dig the new drains.
During the late 70s & early 80s, after construction of the new houses was completed, Ruston Mews as a roadway was left to itself and the street gradually fell into disrepair. By the late 80s a consensus began to form that there should be residents association to take over control of the roadway.
During 1988 a number of residents began to meet to discuss options for acquiring the mews and these first meetings were fully attended by most that lived in the mews. After a positive vote to form the association and to acquire the road, 26 residents stumped up £50 each to form the limited company, Ruston Mews association Ltd, which came into being on 19th April 1990.
