Word for the day: mews

I have encountered the word "mews" many hundreds of times while reading British literature, sussed out that it was an arrangement of buildings, but never looked it up.   This week The Guardian featured "Mews-style homes for sale in England," so it was time to dig deeper.  One click at Wikipedia did the trick:

A mews is a row or courtyard of stables and carriage houses with living quarters above them, built behind large city houses before motor vehicles replaced horses in the early twentieth century. Mews are usually located in desirable residential areas, having been built to cater for the horses, coachmen and stable-servants of prosperous residents.

The word mews comes from the Royal Mews in London, England, a set of royal stables built 500 years ago on a former royal hawk mews. The term is now commonly used in English-speaking countries for city housing of a similar design....

Mews derives from the French muer, 'to moult', reflecting its original function to confine a hawk to a mews while it moulted.  William Shakespeare deploys to mew up to mean confine, coop up, or shut up in The Taming of the Shrew: "What, will you mew her up, Signor Baptista?" and also Richard III: "This day should Clarence closely be mewed up".

The rather modest-appearing one embedded at the top is listed at £8,950,000 because of its prime location in Marylebone and its surprisingly spacious interior.