Swan Square in Burslem town centre at the head of Waterloo Road, Queen Street, Nile Street, Chapel Lane and Wedgwood Street all run into this little Square. 

The novelist, Arnold Bennett, used this square (which he named Duck Square) and the nearby St. Johns Square (which he named St. Lukes Square) in his novels.   

In the small Swan Square is The George Hotel (Bennett's 'Dragon Hotel') the Swan Bank Methodist Church (Bennett's Duck Bank Chapel) and on the corner of Queen Street two shops which were Bennett's 'Clayhanger's Steam Print Works'.

Swan Bank Methodist Church
Chapel Lane at the bottom of Swan Square, with the George Hotel on the right.
photo: Dec 1999

Burslem's old Central Methodist Church, a massive edifice of 1801, was demolished in the 1960's.  This modern church of concrete and brick was designed by Hulme, Upright and Partners and completed in 1971. 

more photos of Swan Bank Methodist Church

 

The George Hotel on Chapel Lane
The original George Hotel (which Bennett knew) burnt down in 1929 and this was its replacement.
photo: Dec 1999

more photos of the George Hotel

Messrs. Wardle Bros., Ironmongers - in 1893
Swan Square and Chapel Lane, Burslem.

From: 'A descriptive account of The Potteries (illustrated)
1893 advertising and trade journal. Page 66'

on the journal entry