Residents of Charlton are aiming to raise £360,000 to save and transform their local pub, the White Swan.
The White Swan is a late-victorian pub that has sat in the heart of Charlton Village since the 1840s before closing its doors permanently in March 2020.
Local residents have established the White Swan Music & Arts charity (WSMA) with the hope of reviving the pub and converting it into a community arts hub.
So far they have raised a quarter of their target through their crowdfunder campaign.
The WSMA is chaired by Suzanne Hunt, who runs a recording and rehearsal studio in Charlton, has decades of experience in the music industry, and aspires to make the White Swan a focal hub of Charlton’s creative community.
Paul Chapman, one of the charity’s trustees and long-term resident of Charlton, said: “In the pub’s most recent open years it was a massive community favourite.
“When it closed, the White Swan was one of two pubs in Charlton village, and it probably filled the hole of being one of the family friendly pubs that hosted live music and community events such as film festivals.”
Since its closure, the pub has fallen into neglect, as squatters and an illegal cannabis farm were discovered on the site in 2023.
In October 2023, the WSMA launched a petition that helped preserve the pub after its owner, an Isle of Man–based property developer, failed to secure planning permission to convert it into a Tesco with seven flats above.
Due to the large community response to the redevelopment, the Greenwich Planning Inspectorate blocked the proposal in June 2024.
The government-appointed planning inspector, Kevin Savage, said: “It has not been adequately demonstrated that the public house is no longer commercially viable or that it could not be made viable.”
Previous owners of the pub struggled to make a profit and afford the rent, prompting the WSMA to plan for an outright purchase of the building rather than seek a landlord to pay the lease.
Chapman said: “Whilst convincing a landlord to pay the lease would be a much smaller target, we are trying to get the money to buy the whole building to keep the future in our hands and be masters of our own fate.”
In their current plans, the WSMA aspires to transform the White Swan into a community-oriented pub that allows young creatives in the area to utilise the space as an arts hub.
Reena, a resident of Charlton village for over 20 years, said: “The Swan for me was a sense of belonging in the community, regardless of age, it was a place where everyone would either accidentally or intentionally get together because everyone belonged there.”
She has raised her two children within the community, with the Swan playing a pivotal role in their childhood, and both are now young musicians performing with the local youth band, the C7.
Reena fondly remembered raising her children around the community that the Swan brought to the area.
“The pub has been such an important part of my children’s lives, from spending New Years Eve there each year to them performing their music for the first time upstairs at the Swan,” she said.
“I’m so excited about the current plans to turn the pub into a music hub, making the Swan not just a place of belonging, but also a safe place for young people to be creative.”
The campaign is relying heavily on the support of the community, as Charlton Athletic Football Club recently backed the campaign on their social media channels whilst local businesses such as the Charlton Village Green Grocers have matched donations.
The owner of the Village Green Grocers, Bee, said: “As a local business owner, I have had first hand experience of what an anchor business does to a high street and the local economy.
“My shop is an example of this, as we were one of the local businesses who supplied the Swan with fresh produce before its closure along with other independent businesses such as the local butchers.”
The WSMA recently announced they plan to launch a community share offer this summer to supporters of the campaign with assistance from Co-operatives UK, providing contributors with a direct form of ownership.
More information about the plans for The White Swan can be found at their website or @WhiteSwanArtsCharlton on Instagram, and you can support the campaign directly through their Crowdfunder campaign.
Featured image credit: @WhiteSwanArtsCharlton/Instagram
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