The Swan, Kidderminster

Just across the road from Kidderminster Town Hall, the Swan is an old town centre pub dating back to the 1860's. I arrived here after 23:00 on a Saturday night only to find the place in full-on nightclub mode, much to my surprise having read a good write up on the pub and its ale policy in a CAMRA magazine earlier in the day. Having gone though a bag check by a friendly doorman outside, I found myself in a concrete floored U-shaped room with an angular, faux-marble counter servery opposite. There is a fake stone wall to the right with a large clock and some TV screens showing music videos, whilst the windows look out across the square outside, which probably makes for some decent people watching in the day, but in the night, all you could really see were the few tables and chairs arranged on the pavement outside. Elsewhere in the front part of the pub, I spotted a Worcester rugby shirt hung from a ceiling beam and a lot of Six Nations bunting, suggesting that live sport gets an outing on the screens during the day. The room extends to the rear down the right hand side of the bar, into a long, narrow bare boarded area with a drinking ledge down one side under a large mirror, whilst banquettes provide seating options to the left. A DJ was set up in a booth to the rear of the room next to a bare brick wall and fireplace with a nice stained glass feature. A door to the left of the DJ booth leads out to a rear courtyard with its own bar and limited standing room overlooked by a couple of nice old Swan signs. The DJ was really going for it when I arrived and the locals seemed to be loving it, singing along to all his cheesy tunes and turning the rear part of the pub into a dancefloor area. The bar was well stocked with ales - six were on in total, comprised of Bewdley Worcestershire Way, Worcestershire Sway and Sir Keith Park, Sharps Doom Bar, Davenport Original and Pennine Hair of the Dog. I tried a pint of the latter for £3.30 which was pretty good and then, for reasons I can't entirely explain, decided to put up with the carnage within to also sample the Sway, which was excellent. This was a crazy visit and certainly not something I'd be looking to repeat. I got the impression that this is a pretty good pub that knows how to keep its beer well, but it didn't strike me as the cosiest of spots and I can think of several other pubs in the town centre that do this sort of thing better. This probably works better as part of a crawl, for which it would be an obvious one to include - just make sure you don't leave it until last unless you want the full disco experience.

2nd out of 4 tried in Kidderminster. Seems to have moved the real ales onto the Bewdley Brewery - three from there on one side of the bar and Wye Valley (maybe 1 other) HPA on the other side. HPA was in decent condition. Typical town centre pub - nothing to really remember it by. Trip blogged at http://bit.ly/2ieHy8w

This is an old town centre pub with a single L shaped room. Most of the horizontal part of the L seemed to be reserved for dining and the rest for drinkers. Sadly the drinking area had screens showing a rugby game despite the fact that only a handful of people were watching it. At least the volume wasn't ridiculously high The bar has six hand pumps with one having a cider. The beers on my visit were Bewdley Worcestershire Way, Worcestershire Sway & Into Touch, Black Wolf Hospital Pass IPA and a beer from the Birmingham Rock & Roll brew pub. I went for the Worcestershire Sway (£3.30) which was in excellent condition. Apart from the TVs I thought this place was OK. At least there were some interesting beers which would always make it worth a visit.

At the bottom of the main hill into town. A ‘tick’ shaped internal layout with a fairly battered varnished wood interior and an exposed brick area to the far right. Items of note included a mounted bass guitar and some signed sports shirts, seems aimed at the sports and younger crowd. Fairly quiet on my Sunday early evening visit. Six pumps, five ales: Doom Bar, St Austell Trelawny, Purity Goose/Gold and Castle Rock Pale which was in good form, served up by a friendly barmaid. No sign of any ciders though. I must admit I didn't take to it as a venue but the range and quality of the beers meant I was happy enough.

The front of the pub consisted of a very small bar with the lounge area sweeping across the whole of the front. There where a few tables and chairs and lots of stools. The rear was for dining only, which on our lunchtime visit looked like something burnt with chips. Still they had a good few dining and a waiter. There were a few locals drinking the ales, the tankard gave that away. In the front lounge some people taking advantage of the cheap cocktails and lager specials. Five ales handpump, I went for the Sadlers Red House and Cannon Royal Teddy Bear.