The Swan is a
Grade II listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
historic pub,
immediately south-west of the city centre of
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
, in England.
It was built as a beer house and grocery in 1861, at the end of a terrace on Bishopgate Street, the northern extension of
Bishopthorpe Road. In 1899 it was purchased by the
Joshua Tetley's & Son brewery, which in 1936 decided to remodel it. The redesign was executed by the Leeds architecture firm Kitson, Parish, Ledgard and Pyman, and it survives largely intact.
The design centres on a large drinking lobby, with two rooms leading off, the public bar to the front and the grander smoke room to the rear. Each has a hatch for bar service. There is a hatch from the servery to Clementhorpe, which was used for take-out sales, but is no longer in use. At the rear of the pub, there are stairs up to first-floor accommodation, and down to the cellar.
Surviving features from the 1936 redesign include the fitted seats, terrazzo floor, bell pushes, and toilets. It was made a Tetley's heritage pub in 1985 and was listed in 2010 following a campaign by the
Campaign for Real Ale
The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans, England, which promotes real ale, cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs. With just under 155,000 members, it is th ...
(CAMRA). That organisation describes the pub as "one of the best preserved interiors of its kind in the country".
In 2009, CAMRA named The Swan its York Pub of the Year. By 2017, it was owned by
Punch Taverns
Punch Pubs & Co is a pub and bar operator in the United Kingdom, with around 1,300 leased pubs. It is headquartered in the traditional brewing centre of Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange as a constitu ...
. That year, the landlord used the Pubs Code Regulations 2016 to move from being a
tied house
In the United Kingdom, a tied house is a public house required to buy at least some of its beer from a particular brewery or pub company. That is in contrast to a free house, which is able to choose the beers it stocks freely.
A report for th ...
to operating on a market rent-only basis. In 2020, the pub was one of 14 in the city to appear in the ''
Good Beer Guide
The ''Good Beer Guide'' is a book published annually by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) listing what it considers to be the best 4,500 real ale outlets (pubs, clubs, and off-licences) in the United Kingdom.
Details
The content of the guide i ...
''.
See also
*
The Black Swan, York
The Black Swan is a public house in the city centre of York, in England.
The building lies on Peasholme Green, on the site of an important Mediaeval house which had been occupied by various Lord Mayors of York and Members of Parliament. In 156 ...
, a pub on Peasholme Green in York city centre
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swan, The
Buildings and structures completed in 1861
Grade II listed pubs in York
National Inventory Pubs