September 2025
The submission highlighted the success of the Chatty Café initiative, which fosters informal conversations among individuals. It led to a French language learning club and a trip to Paris by its members. Other highlights included our annual themed food and entertainment events celebrating British history, such as Burns Night and St George’s Day, organised by volunteers, with proceeds supporting the restoration of The Swan.
The Swan Clewer Community Interest Company (CIC) was formed to save the pub from closure and reimagine its potential. The ownership is divided among 120 community residents, Windsor and Eton Brewery, and The Green Room Foundation. The pub has a diverse and eclectic look, with furniture donated, built from pallets, or salvaged from the historical site. The Swan aims to be a welcoming space for all, promoting community, inclusivity, sustainability, and responsibility.
Proudest Achievement
From the renovation of The Swan, a pub that collaborates with a school to support students who have not succeeded in mainstream education, is now celebrating its 6th anniversary as a safe and inclusive community space that promotes diversity and belonging.
Heart of the Community
The Swan prides itself on being at the heart of the community with a variety of activities such as a weekly dog-walking group and Uke-Oke, a unique Karaoke-style singalong with the Windsor Ukulele Band. The pub also sends out a weekly newsletter to over 1000 recipients and uses social media to amplify its message. The Swan is a popular venue for hatches, matches and dispatches. Each year, the community votes for and selects a Charity of the Year, which in 2025 is the Windsor Homeless Project. The Swan’s motto for the year is We’re The Swan – where everyone is welcome.
As a Pub
Drinks and Events: The Swan offers a wide range of drinks, including 42 different guest beers and ales, and hosts weekend beer festivals with full tap takeovers for independent breweries across the UK. They also support local live entertainment and food stalls during these events. Additionally, we’ve held Prosecco, Gin, and Alcohol-Free promotion months.
Loyalty Scheme: The Swan has a loyalty scheme where customers can enjoy 9 drinks of the same type and get the 10th free. This scheme has been running for 2 years and has proven to be very popular 2.
Private Functions: The pub is a popular venue for parties and private functions, contributing significantly to its overall turnover. They have recently changed their wine suppliers to a local store in Windsor to better support these functions.
These initiatives reflect The Swan’s commitment to quality, community engagement, and social responsibility.
Promoting Inclusivity
There are various activities and initiatives:
Inclusivity: The Swan emphasises inclusivity, ensuring that everyone feels welcome and safe. They have made modifications to the space to make it accessible for all, including accessible toilets, ramps, and step-free access. They also offer a unisex toilet option and ensure the decor is calm and inviting.
Community Offerings: The Swan offers a diverse range of community groups, classes, and regular entertainments to cater to everyone. This includes activities like quizzes, Warhammer, ukulele, and Mahjong. The pub serves as a place for young and old to interact, promoting respect and empathy between generations.
Behaviour and Attitudes: The Swan encourages inclusive attitudes and behaviour, with staff and patrons not tolerating any behaviour that seeks to exclude or belittle others. They support each other in times of need and celebrate each other’s successes.
Growing Sustainability
We are always looking to reduce our energy consumption. Our solar panels go 10% of the way, helping to run our fully electric kitchen. We have upgraded the insulation whenever we have renovated any of the rooms, and are currently fundraising to upgrade our pub windows to double-glazed panels. We will do this by retrofitting extra panes into our existing original windows.
The Green Room College has recently signed up for Let’s go Zero, a national campaign to make all educational estates zero carbon by 2030. We will soon receive our Carbon Count, which will allow us to have some reliable data to help us manage and celebrate progress. Students are starting a Source to Sea project, where they explore where litter can end up. This provides curiosity to our weekly litter picks in the community and will take our students overseas as they get involved in beach cleans both at home and abroad.
It also impacts our procurement and our service providers. The Swan’s banking and mortgage is with Triodos Bank, a certified ‘B-Corp’ organisation since 2015. We compost all of our coffee grounds and food waste, which goes to help the plants we grow on site and at the school allotment. Any other waste we produce is collected by Grundons in their 100% carbon neutral fleet and taken to their renewable energy waste plant in Colnbrook.
Being sustainable is about building and maintaining good habits, and we are always looking for other opportunities to do this. Although we know we have a way to go, we are committed to continually striving for a greener future and see it as another responsibility we have for our community.
Recent Investment
The Swan faces challenges and ongoing efforts:
Financial Challenges: Over the past 24 months, The Swan has faced significant financial difficulties due to rising interest rates, utility costs, staffing, and product costs. Despite these challenges, the pub has managed to stay afloat.
Educational Projects: Renovation of the upstairs bedrooms has begun, led by College students learning skills in plastering, electrical work, and plumbing. The goal is to have four rentable rooms on the second floor, providing additional income and employment opportunities.
Community Involvement: The pub recently renovated its interior through a volunteering weekend, which included repainting, adding tiling, and creating space for community photo frames. This low-cost investment was well-received by the community.
New Cellar Hatch: A new custom-made cellar hatch, created by a college alumnus, has been installed to improve beer delivery and cellar insulation.
These efforts reflect The Swan’s commitment to community engagement, education, and continuous improvement despite financial challenges.
Recognition
We are delighted that people like what we do. Not only is our number of social media visits growing, but our reviews on both Facebook and Google Business score an impressive 4.7 out of 5. We have also been fortunate to have been chosen for a number of awards, including:
- GBPA Award 2024 – Winner – Best Community Pub
- GBPA Award 2020 – Winner – Keeping The Community Entertained
- Round & About Good Cheer Award – Winner 2021
- CAMRA Good Beer Guide for 2025, our 5th consecutive year!
All of these acknowledgements, when added together, bring us amazing coverage expanding visibility of The Swan both in the local and wider areas, thus expanding our customer base.
- We’re more than a pub,
- At the heart of the community,
- With lots going on,
- And a unique story to tell,
- Where everyone is welcome.
We believe all these things add up to The Swan being the true definition of a community hero.