The Charlton Champion

Plans to convert the upper floors of the White Swan in Charlton Village into two flats have been thrown out on the third anniversary of the pub’s closure.

Isle of Man-based Mendoza Ltd had insisted the plans would not affect the viability of the pub – but Greenwich Council’s planning officers disagreed on the grounds that it would remove part of the pub’s floorspace.

As well as removing the function rooms upstairs, the plans would have involved taking out part of the downstairs bar to form an entrance to the flats.

Developers did not wait for the council to assess the plans and have already converted the rooms upstairs into residential accommodation, which is currently being squatted – something discovered by council officers when they visited the Swan as part of their investigations.

The Charlton Champion understands that electricity supply to the building was cut off this week.

The pub poured its last pints on March 9, 2020 after four years of being run as a sister pub to the much-loved Pelton Arms in Greenwich.

In November 2020 Mendoza won planning permission to build a house in part of the beer garden after Stephen Brain, then the chair of planning in Greenwich, broke a tied vote to approve the plans. Work has not yet begun; Mendoza has until November this year to begin or the permission will lapse.

But that application was, in part, Mendoza’s undoing, because it said that the pub was viable because “the first floor of the public house contained a function room, a pool room and a cocktail bar with seating for 26 persons. This is corroborated by several objectors who stated that they had hired a function room at the premises in the past.”

Brendan Meade, the council officer who wrote the report, said that this showed Mendoza’s latest plans “would result in the loss of a significant amount of floorspace associated with the pub which would have an impact on the future viability of the public house to continue as such”.

Mendoza’s attempts to claim the pub was not viable were also criticised – Meade said a marketing report was not dated but appeared to have been written in late 2020, when lockdown had ravaged the market for pubs.

“The proposed development would result in the partial loss of floorspace associated with the existing public house with no justification provided for its loss,” the report concluded.

“Consequently, insufficient evidence has been submitted demonstrating how the existing public house on the site would continue to be economically viable and would not result in the loss of a social community asset to the detriment of the local area.”

The council is now going through the process of placing the Swan on its local heritage list, while this website understands that a repossession hearing will be held next week to take the pub back from the squatters.

There were 147 objections to Mendoza’s plans, including from the Charlton Society and the SE London branch of the Campaign for Real Ale.

Following the money

Mendoza bought the freehold to the Swan from Punch Taverns for £900,000 in April 2015, although Land Registry data reveals that in December that year the building was sold again, to Associate Properties Ltd, also based on the Isle of Man, for £1.2 million.

Both Mendoza and Associate Properties are registered at the same office in Douglas, the Manx capital, and the planning application was made by Mendoza. After its closure, the company insisted that it was committed to reopening the Swan as a pub.

Since January 2021 the property has been mortgaged. That charge is now held by Apex, a financial services company based in Bermuda.

A report to the council from Jenkins Law, which had been marketing the pub, said that it was initially offered at a rent of £50,000/year, later cut to £40,000/year, for the ground floor and basement only. The report described Charlton as “a densely-populated affluent suburb” and wrongly claimed the pub closed in November 2019.

The pub is now being marketed by Davis Coffer Lyons for £80,000/year for the whole building; it describes the first floor as “managers’ accommodation”.

The Charlton Champion understands that the rent on the Swan while it was open was about £65,000/year, although we have not been able to corroborate this figure. When Mendoza won permission to build the pub beer garden, its planning consultant conceded that the rent may have been too high.

Mendoza and Associate Properties also share the HQ in Douglas with another sister company, Hamna Wakaf, which owns the Vanburgh in Greenwich.

Plans for a house at the rear of the Vanbrugh were approved by planning inspectors in 2021 after years of refusals from the council. The housing plans for both the Vanbrugh and the Swan shared an architect, Milan Babic.

The Vanbrugh closed a year ago and is currently on the market for £90,000/year, although it is currently said to be “under offer”.

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This website is closing this spring – we thank readers for their support of neighbourhood news for Charlton over the years.