Within the framework of the finite element method problems with corner‐like singularities (e.g. on the well‐known L‐shaped domain) are most often solved by the adaptive strategy: the mesh near the corners is refined according to the a posteriori error estimates. In this paper we present an alternative approach. For flow problems on domains with corner singularities we use the a priori error estimates and asymptotic expansion of the solution to derive an algorithm for refining the mesh near the corner. It gives very precise solution in a cheap way. We present some numerical results. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.