Pub regulars told: re-train or face ejection

The White Swan just off Ladbroke Grove has been serving a loyal clientele for decades, but since it was converted into a 'gastropub' earlier this year regulars have been told they will need to complete a media training course to get a drink there. Kevin McCall, a bricklayer who has been a local at the pub - now renamed The Swan Freehouse and Dining Rooms - for over forty years complained: "All these trendy television and film people come in and eat their beetroot risotto with blue cheese beignets and wild garlic pesto from that new blackboard menu. We've been told we have to have a qualification in television production, lighting, staging or directing just to get a pint of Guinness." He added: "I wouldn't mind but their vanilla panna cotta with raspberry compote is absolutely bloody terrible."