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Picture source: Hania Franek

The Old Swan was situated at 116 Battersea Church Road. This pub has now been demolished with new flats built on the site.

I used to sing at The Old Swan in Battersea with Ian Howard as a duo. We sang there for 3 years, as the resident band, around 1973. We had a large following when Mr Lenny Ennis and his wife were the managers. Horst, managed the restaurant there for many years at that time. From time to time we were joined by musician friends, one friend who joined us on many occasions, was Adrian Johns who was at Imperial College at the time. Adrian left our band to join the Royal Navy when he graduated. Adrian went on the become Sir Adrian Johns, Vice Admiral of the Royal Navy, Second Sea Lord, bestowed on him by Her Majesty The Queen, and then he became Governor of Gibraltar. Ian went on into founding restaurants and music venues, opening "Break For The Border in Covent Garden and then as founder of the many live music venues called, "The Academy" many will know his Brixton Academy. As for me I moved to the USA where I did many things. I became an author of three books, one is an autobiography called, "One Of A Kind Making Things Happen." now on Amazon. I was interviewed on Fox News in their programme, "Inspirational Entrepreneurs" and I was also the US Correspondent for a UK radio show with some 35 made for radio interviews now on YouTube. The Old Swan is featured in my book and the photo above, which is in my book, was taken while we were singing there. Many, many people, now all over the world, remember those lovely days at The Old Swan with us playing there. I have many fond memories of that pub and our time there. Sad that it is now gone forever, but we all cherish those memories of Battersea.

Tony Moore (July 2018)

I remember the Old Swan very fondly. It was the beginning of a great social period for me and a group of friends. It became a regular haunt of ours for a couple of years at least. There were normally eight to ten of us, my Sister and her friends and my friends: a fairly even mix of boys and girls. We had our favourite spot tucked into the corner with the juke box on our left. It would blast out the Elton John classic “Crocodile Rock” and Paul McCartney's “C Moon”, which was rumoured to have a very rude code to it’s words, but we never knew what it was. Our gatherings began as just a group of teenagers enjoying a good night out, but it set the scene for many years to come. I actually ended up marrying my wife’s best friend who was part of the group. As the evenings wore on, and it wasn’t too long before ‘kicking out’ time, the fish man would come round with his wicker basket of cockles, mussels, prawns and other such delights. I don’t know why it was but these always seemed to go down well after a few pints and some scotch and dry gingers! Sadly, I don’t know anything about the staff that worked there. Our little group consisted of me and my sister, Graham and Val Strachan, Frank Moore, Paul Hegarty, Paul Harding, Eileen Holt, Val Chubb, Sue Parry (wife to be) Jane Hilton plus a variety of occasional interlopers.

Graham Strachan (April 2019)

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