The mews provides a perfect hideaway

From humble beginnings in the shadow of great houses they became the height of style. Now you can have the ideal home for your E-Type for a £2.15m price tag

Humble in origins but now a byword for exclusivity, mews houses are quirky urban cottages with cachet. Sebastian Deckker, author of Mews Style says "mews living is a way of life", which in the 1960s meant bachelor pads, playboys and the jet-set. Leslie Charteris's sultan of suave, The Saint, lived, naturally, in a mews house.

Celebrities love their privacy combined with a central location and the mews have long been a magnet for the creative, artistic and unconventional. Serge Gainsbourg, singer, film-maker, and all-round provocateur, lived in his converted former stables in fashionable St Germain in Paris, proving mews appeal is not merely a British phenomenon.

Buyers wanting a mews house in London will have to dig deep. Richard Moore is selling his three-bedroom mews house near Eaton Square for £2.15m, but it does have an integrated garage and parking space, where Mr Moore can park his E-Type, a Rick Baker kitchen, and wall-mounted plasma screen in the living room. "As soon as you walk into the mews house you feel cosy and warm," he says. "It's not like living in some vast, impersonal apartment; it feels like a real home."

The market for these bijou houses extends far beyond the capital. Towns and cities from Bath and Brighton to Bristol, have already experienced fervent activity to bring former mews back into life. Last year, CALA Home converted The Mews, a 19th-century, Grade II-listed former coach-house and stable blocks at Bardon Hall in Leeds into nine mews apartments around a private courtyard. The original stalls, half-covered with ornate dark-green ceramic tiles, were still in place as were the original timber windows, herringbone block-paved floor, hay baskets and stable doors.

A large part of the charm of the mews rests, Deckker says, "in the impression of being transported into a rural setting, an enclave of cottages and cobbled streets. They recall a bygone age which evokes a community spirit long since forgotten. It is the interaction of people of the mews that differentiates them".

Richard Moore agrees. "You walk outside into what is effectively the mews' own private paved area, especially if like mine the mews is a cul-de-sac. A neighbour might pop out and say hello and you can chat, away from the hustle and bustle of the streets nearby."

For new-build developers struggling with the government ideal of a density of 30 to 50 houses per hectare, the compact mews plots are an additional benefit. Paula Fisher, sales and marketing director for Fairclough Homes, says: "Initially, the supply of new mews houses was influenced by the need to satisfy the local planning guidelines." But what has continued to fuel the explosion of mews developments is strong demand. "It is quite a flexible house type, so people with young children might want to put most of the living space on the ground floor, or if you work from home, you can put your office/IT room on the ground floor and live above."

A new Cambridge centre scheme at Rustat Road includes mews-style homes with roof gardens. "People like outside space, but do not want to spend the summer mowing," says Paul Bennett, marketing director of Laing Homes who have built several mews schemes in the city. Prices of houses in Rustat Road start at £199,995.

But the achilles heel of the mews style has always been lack of daylight. Often tucked behind the aristocratic mansions they served, many were overshadowed. Developer Rialto's mews scheme Valentina Mews in London's Islington is a contemporary reinterpretation of the traditional mews in several styles, with cream and brick facades, and entrance doors with stained glass windows. The two- and three-bedroom houses have glass block walling to allow light throughout, open-plan reception rooms the depth of each property, as well as prism skylights. The 17 new-build mews terraces, priced from £289,950 to £385,000, front a block-paved, private courtyard, with gated entrance to the parking bays.

Richard Moore feels sad about leaving his house and the friendly ambiance of the mews. But he is moving to another mews property nearby.

Richard Moore's Eaton Mews South, for sale through DTZ Residential, on 020 7235 8088;

Laing Homes, on 01223 347000;

Rialto, on 020 7561 9828;

'Mews Style' by Sebastian Deckker, price £20, Quiller Press.