This pub usually hosts Surrey Swans once a month. Surrey Swans provides a place where trans people and their partners, friends and families can meet socially under the guidance of our lovely Andrea.

We normally meet on the last Sunday of each month but please just check "Upcoming Events". See also https://surreyswans.blogspot.com/p/intro ducing-surrey-swans.html for more detailed information and https://surreyswans.blogspot.com/p/meet ings-in-2023.html for the most up-to-date information of our meetings. If you copy and paste the addresses, be sure to remove the space. I had to put it there for technical reasons.

The meetings are in a separate room that has its own entrance (marked by a red arrow on the right of the picture; the map location also points at that entrance) so it's well suited to anyone that feels a bit nervous about taking those first steps.

It is possible to get changed and put on make-up in privacy at the pub.

There are many people whose first venture into the outside world as their true self has been to pay a visit to Surrey Swans and newcomers are always welcome.

Pre-COVID there were typically between 12 and 20 people there, though numbers have been smaller in the aftermath of COVID-related lockdowns. People begin arriving at around about 7:30 pm and generally stay until somewhere between 10:00 pm and 11:00 pm.

There's an attendance fee of £3 per person. The aim of this is to cover the costs of using the room and also subsidise the cost of events that are organised from time to time.

Often times there is nothing in particular organised. People sit and chat about anything and everything. Near the end we usually have a quiz.

Occasionally there is a theme evening. We've also had demonstrations on how best to apply eye makeup, wig styling, an Anne Summers evening, a visit from Surrey Police and a visit from a film crew.

Although Surrey Swans isn't specifically organised as a help group ... just talking with other people that are in similar circumstances can be of great help. There are always people around that are happy to listen and offer help where they can.

If you're interested in knowing more about Surrey Swans or transgender issues in general — or maybe would like to come along sometime — then visit https://surreyswans.blogspot.com for more information and contact details.

UPDATE:

For the past several years we've avoided having meetings on bank holiday weekends.

At the most recent meeting (30th April) we had a chat about this.

It turns out that no one that attended the meeting found this to offer any consistent or regular benefits. Once in a while it meant that they could attend a meeting that otherwise they wouldn't have been able to, but just as often it had the opposite effect.

So, to simplify the timetabling (and the remembering of dates) we decided to switch back to simply scheduling meetings for the last Sunday of each month, with the only exception being December when the meeting is scheduled for the second Sunday of the month.

The meetings for 2023 have now been updated here. The full schedule is also on the Surrey Swans’ website.

For 2023 this affects just two dates. It means that there are now meetings scheduled on:
• Sunday 28th May (instead of Sunday 4th June)
• Sunday 27th August (instead of Sunday 3rd September)
Other meeting dates in 2023 aren't affected.