The Swan, Staines-upon-Thames, England

 My next miniature project is an upstairs British flat over a pub -- Ted's new apartment from the show Ted Lasso. (It's on Apple TV. Don't worry if you haven't seen it, because the apartment is charming enough that it doesn't matter.) 

While I'm building it, I thought it would be fun to feature a similar home... only this one is not just the upstairs, but the entire pub. As a bonus, I was surprised to learn that this pub/house has been on a TV show of its own.

Instead of Ted's The Crown and Anchor in Richmond, this is The Swan in Staines.

Its exact build date isn't available, but it does have a business license dating back to 1877.

A Historical Walk goes past it and calls it the most isolated drinking hole in Staines.

{source}

It must be isolated, because it was further described as derelict in 2008:

You might be asking how much work does it take to turn a derelict pub into a family home? Answer: a whole lot of work, because the house has undergone two major remodels since 2008.

Here are floorplans for reference:

{prior to 2008, based on conjecture}

{circa 2008}

{2nd remodel, circa 2016}

All of that re-arranging makes for some great before and after photos! Here's how it looked as a pub with its two double-sided fireplaces:

Now there is a more distinct, light and bright entry...

and a wall to create a separate living room to the left:

In 2016 they opened up the fireplace again, below:

As much as I love a light and bright entry, if it were mine, I'd make it feel like a cozy pub again, like this:

I used AI to do the trickier furniture arranging of the bench under the mirror and the angle of the rug. And, much like when you're moving furniture with a spouse, Grok had a little trouble figuring out what I wanted at first and gave me this:

The living room behind the fireplace used to look like this, below:

Today that same living/reception room looks like this, with the brick fireplace re-exposed:

It's nice, but it doesn't feel like all the elements work together as well as they could. So, I took color inspiration from British designer Ben Pentreath and photoshopped a few things to create this:

That's Ted Lasso on TV inside the cabinet. (Obviously, you'd have to open the doors to watch it.) Here's the image that inspired me:

{source}

When they changed the pub into a home, they put the kitchen in the front of the house, on the opposite side of the front hallway from the living room:

They cleverly used the existing chimney as a home for their range.

They turned the pub's solarium at the back of the house into a dining room.

Today the kitchen and dining room are flip-flopped...the solarium is now the kitchen, below...

while the former kitchen is now the dining room, below:

They did a lot of work to re-expose the fireplace brick and close the wall to the left.

In 2008 they also tucked a breakfast room behind the kitchen, below:

Today that space is an un-pictured office.

The original renovation created 1 bedroom downstairs and 3 upstairs. Today there are 2 more bedrooms; one over the original garage, and one in the attic space.

The new additions left the face of the Swan unchanged except for replacing the garage door with a window when it was converted into an annex room:

The rear of the house saw the biggest change in the renovations. It went from this:

to this:

It's a dramatic difference, much like the sometimes manufactured drama of being on a home renovation show. The Swan was featured on Season 1, episode 11 of Property Snakes and Ladders. (Later shortened to Property Ladder.)

In addition to providing us with the before photos of the pub, the show also supplied this rare photo of one of the bathrooms:

The show left us with a cliffhanger. The homeowners were hoping to build two new houses in the pub's former parking lot, but the application and planning process was proving lengthy and costly. Would the couple see a good return on their investment?

Spoiler alert: No. Fortunately for us, but maybe unfortunately for them, Google maps had the answer. 

As of 2022, those two additional houses hadn't been built. But kudos to them for taking a space with a lot of potential and giving it even more. 

The Property Snakes and Ladders episode is available here. The Swan's segment starts at 39:45. The 2008 photos are from this listing, and the current listing is here.

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I finished my own room above the pub! The video of it is here. Couldn't decide which thumbnail picture I liked better, so I used them both. Which one do you like better? Please tell me in the comments over there, and I'll let know which of the two ends up being the winner. 😀

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