Above photo, 1915, also showing the closed "George Inn" on its right.

Above photo, circa 1974, occasion unknown.

Above photo, date unknown.

Above photo 2011.

From the https://www.mylondon.news By Angie Quinn, 30 January 2019.

The White Swan in Greenwich has been given a zero star food hygiene rating.

The inspection took place after a complaint of illness.

But do we ever wonder exactly how our food is being stored or prepared before we eat it? Probably not.

We're usually too busy socialising to worry about that - and that's where the Food Standards Agency comes in to check for us.

The agency carried out an inspection at The White Swan, in The Village, Charlton, on September 14 last year and gave it a food hygiene rating of 0.

The full report issued by Greenwich council states the inspection took place following a complaint of illness from drinking warm beer and cider after the cellar refrigeration broke down.

The report also states if a score of 0, 1 or 2 is given, then the business is in the worst 10 per cent of food businesses in Greenwich.

At the time of the visit, raw meat was found to be dripping meat juices onto the burger buns and salad leaves resulting in cross contamination that could lead to food poisoning.

Burgers and cheese were also found to be past their use-by date.

Food sold beyond its use-by date may be poor quality or unfit, the report states.

The Food Standards Agency inspects all businesses which sell food so customers can trust that products are safe to buy and eat.

At The White Swan, urgent improvement necessary to hygienic food handling and also to the management of food safety, and major improvement necessary to the cleanliness and condition of facilities and building.

The report also said: "The lino floor covering in the kitchen was found to be dirty especially at floor/wall junctions and behind or below equipment. Thoroughly clean the floor and maintain in a clean condition."

The White Swan now says it has made drastic changes to the way its kitchen is run and has seen a "major improvement".

A representative from the White Swan said: "We did have an inspection last year and unfortunately we did receive a lower hygiene rating than the previous year when we had a rating of 4.

"We immediately relieved the kitchen manager of their post, closed the kitchen and then carried out the work required in the EHO documentation and had a recheck 14 days after the initial visit.

"The EHO officer was happy all works had been carried out and we are currently awaiting the new rating.

"Since the inspection we have leased out our kitchen to Ehla which also has a permanent residency in Greenwich Market, and on a Monday we have a street food van pizza pop-up called Wandercrust."

From the https://charltonchampion.co.uk  By Darryl Chamberlain, 4 September 2019.

White Swan freeholder plans to shrink beer garden for new house building plan.

The road to the house’s bin store would run through this outbuilding and the beer garden behind.

The company that owns the freehold to the White Swan pub has made its fourth application to build on land behind the pub’s beer garden – taking a strip off the pub’s beer garden in doing so.

Isle of Man-based Mendoza Ltd, which makes money through buying pubs and turning part of the land into housing, again wants to build a three-bedroom house on land behind the pub, although with a new design that takes inspiration from the Swan’s neighbour, The "Bugle Horn." The plan eight months after a planning inspector threw out its last attempt.

In an application submitted to Greenwich Council, it says that planning officers are now supportive of the scheme, which would see the house face the Torrance Close service road behind The Village.

This access route would be extended to the new house.

However, the new plan involves using the yard at the side of the pub – and part of the beer garden – as an access route so council bin lorries can collect refuse from the new house by driving in from The Village. Plans submitted by Mendoza show the road running through an outbuilding and the east side of the beer garden. Greenwich Council had told the developer that its bin lorries were too big to use Torrance Close.

The beer garden will be used on Sunday for a Charlton and Woolwich Free Film Festival screening of Life of Brian.

While Torrance Close had been seen as unsuitable for new homes by many, the planning inspector who dealt with the last application did not agree, saying: “The local area to which the site belongs [Torrance Close] has an air of neglect and to my mind is capable of successfully accommodating a bespoke form of new development.

“The conservation area itself has no single unifying architectural theme and there is no obvious reason why it could not in principle readily assimilate a variety of new dwellings in terms of size and style.”

The access route to the bin store can be seen on maps submitted with the planning application.

The developer says the design of the home is informed by “a visual analysis of the area”, citing the "Bugle Horn" and Charlton Assembly Rooms. “The immediate site context is interspersed with Victorian outhouses, chimneys, single and gable- pitched roofs, brick ornamentation, linear facades and window surrounds,” it says. “There is a sense of establishment with most buildings with specular geometries added to address function and enhance the parent form.”

Mendoza render of new White Swan home. How Mendoza says the new home would look.

Mendoza bought the pub from previous owner Punch Taverns in March 2015, evicting the then-management three months later. A first attempt at development, to build two homes, in October 2015, was thrown out by Greenwich Council planners. That decision was upheld by a planning inspector. A second attempt was rejected earlier in 2017. The third attempt, for one three-bedroom house, was rejected by council planners in December 2017 and again by a planning inspector in January. The pub was declared an asset of community value in March 2014, although this has now lapsed.

It is four years this month since the once-tatty pub was taken over by Geoff Keen, owner of Greenwich’s "Pelton Arms." It recently launched a new menu on Tuesdays to Sundays, with a vegan pop-up, Rocket, in place on Monday evenings.

Plans can be seen on Greenwich Council’s planning website, reference 19/2600/F. Comments should be sent to the council by 2 October.

From the https://charltonchampion.co.uk  By Darryl Chamberlain, 10 March, 2020.

Charlton’s White Swan pub closes down four years after rescue.

Last orders: The White Swan on Tuesday lunchtime.

The White Swan pub has closed down suddenly, four-and-a-half years after it was taken over by the owner of Greenwich’s "Pelton Arms."

One of two pubs in Charlton Village, the Swan’s future was threatened in 2015 after a property developer, Mendoza, bought the building from Punch Taverns for £900,000.

But landlord Geoff Keen took the closed pub on and re-opened it as a sister venue to the "Pelton Arms," bringing live music, beer festivals and quiz nights to the once down-at-heel boozer.

However, the pub was closed on Monday and Tuesday night’s quiz has also been/was also cancelled. The Charlton Champion understands the business has long struggled with the high rents charged by Mendoza, which has put in several planning applications to develop land behind the pub’s beer garden.

The pub had advertised a full programme of gigs and events for this month and next, but the bar had been stripped of much of its furniture on Tuesday afternoon. Nobody was answering the phone at the Swan, but the "Pelton Arms" confirmed its sister pub had closed down.

While the Swan had become a well-regarded local pub – it regularly featured in the Deserter.co.uk World Cup of Pubs contest and staged events for the Charlton & Woolwich Free Film Festival – it had struggled to attract loyal custom away from gigs, quiz nights and Charlton match days, with its food and ale varying in quality over the years. However, it had been thought to have improved in recent months.

It offered Charlton season-ticket holders a discount on beer and had become a post-match favourite, while it also provided a home for Addicks memorabilia from the Charlton Athletic Museum. Today’s news will come as a further blow to Addicks fans on top of the club’s new management imploding last night amid a public row.

The news will also deepen fears for the future of Charlton Village, with the Swan adding to a lengthening list of closed-down businesses in an increasing tatty parade. There is no formal plan to turn around the village’s fortunes. The pub had been made an asset of community value after an application by The Charlton Society, but that designation has been allowed to lapse.

A closed-down pub will also make Mendoza’s redevelopment plans for the rear of the pub more viable. Its most recent planning application, to build a house behind the beer garden, featured plans to drive an access road through the side of the beer garden. Unlike its other applications, council officers have not thrown this one out and the plans are still awaiting a decision.

From the https://charltonchampion.co.uk By Darryl Chamberlain, 11 March, 2020.

White Swan: We’re committed to reopening Charlton Village pub, freeholder says.

The pub has been stripped of furniture and fittings.

The property company that owns the White Swan pub in Charlton Village says it is committed to reopening the venue, which closed suddenly on Monday four years after being taken over by the landlord of the "Pelton Arms" in Greenwich.

Mendoza Limited, which bought the building in 2015, said it only learned about the pub’s closure yesterday. “The tenant was no longer responding to my clients’ agents’ requests for rental payments,” Hussein Aziz, of Glasshouse Management, representing Mendoza, told The Charlton Champion.

The company has put in several applications to develop land at the rear of the pub’s beer garden, the latest of which has yet to be determined by Greenwich Council. But the company insists it is committed to finding a new tenant to run both the pub and the beer garden.

“Mendoza is now going to commence the marketing of the premises as a public house in the name of retaining a pub at this address – all being well a more food-led public house, which is more suited to the area,” Aziz said.

“It will go about refurbishing and securing the premises first. To reconfirm for you and your readers – my client would like to rent the pub and the beer garden and find the correct tenants to make this into a lasting hub for the area.”

News of the pub’s closure was greeted with widespread dismay yesterday. It had become a favourite for Charlton Athletic fans, and the news came on top of the unravelling of the club’s recent takeover by East Street Investments.

The Charlton Athletic Museum confirmed last night that Addicks memorabilia that it had loaned to the Swan was safe after the pub’s fixtures and furniture had been stripped.

From the https://charltonchampion.co.uk By Darryl Chamberlain, 16 July 2020.

Closed White Swan pub becomes asset of community value again.

Mendoza bought the freehold to the White Swan in March 2015.

The White Swan pub, which closed suddenly just before the coronavirus pandemic, has been registered as an asset of community value by Greenwich Council after a request by the Charlton Society.

The designation means that if the building is put up for sale, a six-month block can be put on the sale to allow a community group to bid to take it on.

It is the second time the pub has been given the status – six years ago the society successfully applied for the White Swan to be made an asset of community value, but the designation was allowed to lapse.

The pub’s owner, property company Mendoza, has insisted it will find a new tenant for the pub. Work has taken place on the site since the company repossessed the building in March.

A decision is due on a planning application by Mendoza to build a house on land at the back of the pub – shaving off a section of the beer garden to build an access road.

The village’s other pub, the "Bugle Horn," was designated an asset of community value in June 2015, though that status expired last month.

From the https://www.newsshopper.co.uk 23rd August 2023. By Joe Coughlan.

The 19th century Greenwich pub that could become a Tesco.

The White Swan, as seen on The Village road in Charlton. Credit: Google Earth.

A South London pub that’s stood since the 19th century could be changed into a Tesco, after the boozer has sat empty for over three years.

Greenwich Council has received plans to change the White Swan pub in Charlton into a set of seven flats with a shop on the ground floor.

The plans, submitted by Mendoza, would include adding an extra storey to the top of the Victorian pub and building an extension on top of the current beer garden.

The pub has reportedly been closed since March 2020 and the new design seeks to preserve the character of the existing structure.

Planning documents from Jenkins Law show that Tesco viewed the site in December last year and had since sent a proposal for the space.

The plans from Jenkins Law said there was “extremely limited” demand for the pub in its current form and the building had been marketed for the past three and a half years but no new leaseholder could be found.

The plans said: “We consider that it is unrealistic for the property to continue as a drinking establishment evidenced by the previous tenants’ failure to operate viably despite apparent community support and the extremely poor level of interest throughout the marketing campaign.”

The White Swan was locally listed by Greenwich Council last month. Council documents said the building was reconstructed in 1889 when it was used as a hotel.

The building’s attic was damaged after being bombed during World War Two, with the extension proposed in the new plans taking inspiration from the original design.

Planning documents from Milan Basic Architects, on behalf of Mendoza, said: “We firmly believe that the transformation of the existing building into a mixed-use space, encompassing both residential and retail functions, will bring about positive changes to the area’s assets.”

They added: “This conversion will not only introduce new employment opportunities and living spaces for potential renters or buyers but also enhance the overall wellbeing of the current residents in the vicinity.”

Tesco and Jenkins Law were approached for comment, but had not responded at the time of publication.