The traditional Black Country pub that is thriving under a new lease of life
As pubs continue to battle the cost of living crisis, the Express & Star continues its Love Your Local series which celebrates our local inns.
The Swan in Amblecote has been given a new lease of life since reopening just under two years ago, and landlord Philip Guy has shared on how it has become the 'local' for not only the people in the area, but the surrounding areas too.
After the pub was purchased in 2021, it underwent a major refurbishment where Philip says it was literally put back to brick, and after a lot of hard work and effort went into it, it reopened in October of that year, and it has now gone from strength to strength in becoming one of the most popular establishments in the area.
Philip said: "Me and my business partner Mark Hill are part of a group, and we had the Red Lion which is literally only around 500 yards away from The Swan, and we knew this was coming on the market and despite it being close by and it being a risk, thought it would be worth it to try and create something different to what we had done at the Red Lion.
"The pub wasn't trading at the time and we were friendly with the previous occupier Jeff who had the pub since the 80s, and so we knew that it needed some love and attention - a revamp.
"So we did a full refurbishment, taking it back to brick, but we also spent a lot of time to make it look like it has always been this way in the pub, giving it a sort of nod to its history.
"So we kept a lot of the original things such as the fixed seating, but refurbed them, and when we took the fixed seating out to be refurbished, it had a stamp on there from being built in 1912, and so again it all is a nod to its history, having the old fixed seating in there that is over one hundred years old.
"It was a project refurbishing the place and took around six months in total."
