"Mr Turveydrop’s great room, which was built out into a mews at the back, and was lighted by a skylight. It was a bare, resounding room, smelling of stables;"

An interesting sequence of meanings.
mew (n.2) - "cage," mid-14c., from O.Fr. mue "cage for hawks, especially when molting," from muer "to molt," from L. mutare "to change" (see mutate).
mews - early 17c. from Mewes, name of the royal stables at Charing Cross, built 1534 on the site of the former royal mews, where the king's hawks were kept (see mew (n.2)). Extended 19c. to "street of former stables converted to human habitations."