The campaign to save the White Swan pub in Charlton is stepping up – but it needs your help. PAUL CHAPMAN has the latest news.

We’ve been spending the summer beavering away, looking to bring The White Swan back into community use. We’ve made some some decent progress.

  • We’ve met very senior members of Greenwich Council to explore the building’s future
  • We’ve established contact with the owners of the pub
  • We’ve established a proper group to secure the building’s long-term future

And – not our doing – the Charlton Society has successfully applied to have the Swan listed as a local heritage site. This is in addition to its work making the White Swan a community asset, making it harder for any potential change of use applications that may come in.

This summer has also seen a new planning application submitted by the developers who own the pub – but more on that in a minute.

But first, we are looking for volunteers. We’ve got an established working group who have been moving things forward. We’re a small group of local residents and business owners, led by Suzanne Hunt. But this group can’t do everything we need to do.

So, we are looking for volunteers with specific skills. Skills to develop a long-term future of the White Swan, that builds on its history of music, arts and community use. We need people who can commit time to meet weekly and to devote to ad hoc projects, importantly with specific skills in the following:

  • Communications (building websites, social media campaigns, content creation, community income generation)
  • Finance and fundraising (experience managing and raising capital funding in excess of £1 million through grants, community fundraising, development loans and business as well as individuals qualified in accounts, bookkeeping and law)
  • Charity governance (founding and managing charities, administrative and secretarial skills)
  • Building and premises (premises management, and companies and insured qualified professionals that will lend their skills, eg, builders, surveyors, lawyers, etc)

If you have some free time and could commit your skills, please email us at volunteer[at]savethewhiteswan.org.uk.

As for the planning application that has come in, as a group we have taken a keen interest of course. We don’t have a specific “call to action” regarding the latest application and we note that plenty of objections have been lodged already.

For our part, we seek constructive dialogue with the current owners regarding keeping the pub in use as a community asset.

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