The Swan Hotel - The Hythe, Middlesex UK
N 51° 25.947 W 000° 30.968
30U E 672654 N 5700843
The Swan Hotel on the banks of the River Thames in the Hythe dates from the mid 19th-century
Waymark Code: WMRVWR
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/09/2016
Views: 5
Mentions of the Swan Hotel in this city date from the 1500s, when Staines was a major settlement on the River Thames. The current hotel building dates from the mid-1800s.
The "modern" iteration of the Swan Hotel is a Fuller's Property, and is run as a hotel, restaurant, and pub.
From the Staines History walk website: (
visit link)
The Swan Hotel
Soon to the left is the The Swan Hotel with a decent sized public bar area, but is small for a hotel with only 14 rooms. It is a Fullers Brewery managed house and dates from at least the 18th century. The bar has a pleasant beer garden / terrace to the rear, overlooking the Thames and Staines Bridge. Inside is cosy with lots of old features preserved such as log burning fires and wooden beams. On the western side of the hotel’s you can still see want was once an old coaching arch. The main entrance is topped by a life-size sculpture of a white swan, and as you’ll see below, there was also a much older Swan Inn very close by and backing onto the river.
“Swan Upping” dates back to the 12th century, when The Crown claimed ownership of all mute swans in open water. This “swan marking” event which takes place in the third week of July each year, starts at Sunbury Lock on the Monday and proceeds up river to finish at Abingdon on the Friday. In the Swan Upping ceremony, The Queen's Swan Marker, the Royal Swan Uppers and the Swan Uppers of the Vintners' and Dyers' livery companies are all dressed in traditional clothing and use six traditional Thames rowing skiffs. They mark the swans, check their health and record all their findings. It is traditional for the flotilla to stop at The Swan Hotel on the second day for lunch. On flickr.com you can see a photo from 2009 of the Swan Uppers leaving The Swan Hotel after having lunch."