The Swan hosts meetings for up to 50 people, private dinners, small weddings and team days on the market square of Southwold, a seaside town on the Suffolk coast. The hotel belongs to Adnams, the brewer that has owned it since 1872, and it carries a Michelin Key.
Seminars and company events
The Reading Room on the first floor is the main space for business use. It looks over the market place, works as a meeting room by day and becomes a private dining room in the evening, so a team can work and dine in the same room. For breakout sessions and team building, the hotel uses the Coastal Garden, a private garden area set apart from the main building with its own bedrooms. The events team adapts refreshments to the schedule of each meeting.
Adnams activities give groups a ready-made program once the work is done: tours of the brewery and the distillery, a tour of the Southwold lighthouse, a session to make your own gin and a cocktail masterclass. These turn a one-day meeting into a full away day without leaving town.
Weddings and receptions
The Swan sells weddings. The Reading Room hosts between 14 and 50 guests and is presented for ceremonies as well as receptions, and the Juniper Room takes up to 14 guests for a smaller wedding dinner. Couples can stay on after the day, and the hotel promotes a short post-wedding stay in its rooms.
Rooms and capacities
The Reading Room seats up to 50 and is used for meetings, dinners and wedding ceremonies, with views over the market place. The Juniper Room seats up to 14 and opens off the Still Room restaurant, where it serves as a private dining room. The Coastal Garden offers outdoor space for breakouts and team activities, away from the bustle of the main hotel.
Accommodation
The hotel has bedrooms in the main building and 12 more in the Coastal Garden, set around the private garden. Room service is available, which suits delegates arriving the night before an early session.
Catering
Food is cooked in house. The Still Room is the hotel restaurant, and its chefs prepare menus for the Juniper Room from Suffolk produce. The Reading Room also serves locally sourced menus for lunches and dinners. Drinks come from Adnams, whose brewery and distillery stand in the town.
History and setting
Adnams bought The Swan together with the brewery in 1872. The hotel closed in January 2017 for a full redesign by the architects Project Orange and reopened in October 2017. Part of the Still Room occupies a house that Thomas Bokenham built in 1818. The hotel sits on Market Place, in the center of Southwold, a few minutes on foot from the seafront and the lighthouse.
Getting there
The address is Market Place, Southwold IP18 6EG. The nearest railway station is Halesworth, on the line between Ipswich and Lowestoft, about 9 miles away, and the last stretch is by taxi or car. Norwich airport is the closest airport, and London is about two and a half hours away by road.
