Anyone who has lived in Cippenham Green will have been familiar with the three pubs at its centre. The Swan on the north side of Lower Cippenham Lane was built in the mid-1920s. In 2014 it ceased trading as a public house and has since been converted to flats. Opposite are the King’s Head and the Barleycorn. The King’s Head is thought to date to the mid-18th Century. The present Barleycorn building was built in the late 1920s on the site of a beer-house of the same name which had become delapidated.

The Barleycorn, Cippenham Green

Perhaps the Barleycorn wouldn’t strike anyone as a great venue for holding dances but that was apparently what went on in the late 1920s according to an article in the Slough Observer, 15 Feb 1929. The landlord of the Barleycorn had applied to the magistrates for a license to sell wine (in addition to its license for beer) on the grounds that attendees of its dances were having to go next door to the King’s Head to purchase glasses of wine. It was stated that the recently rebuilt Barleycorn had (in addition to the usual bars) a function room and possessed a license for music and dances. The landlords of The Swan and King’s Head objected to the application and attention was drawn to the livelihood of the landlord of The King’s Head who had to supplement his income by keeping a market garden behind his pub. The application was refused.