In the UK it means 'Special VFR' and allows a pilot under VFR and in VMC conditions to be guided to an airfield which is inside a control zone. You see it quite a lot in the UK where we have lots of airfields inside the control zones of much larger airports. IIRC Manchester Woodford is a good example - right next to Manchester International. In the context of KSFO I would assume it means no SVFR available direct to KSFO or any closeby fields in their CTR.
SVFR means something entirely different in North America. SVFR is a clearance to land or depart VFR in controlled airspace in conditions below VFR minima for a control zone. For example, let's say that I screwed up my preflight planning and was coming home to Ottawa with an icing layer of clouds at 2000 ft and 2 miles visibility. I cannot ask for an IFR clearance, because minimum vectoring altitude around the airport is 2500 ft, which would would put me into the ice; I cannot land regular VFR, because I don't have the minimum 3 miles visibility required in controlled airspace. What I can do is request SVFR from Ottawa Terminal (who will coordinate with Ottawa Tower), and if they allow it, I can scud-run in at 1500 ft, trying to avoid any towers that poke up that high. Of course, people die this way.
Another use of SVFR is breaking off an IFR approach once you're below the ceiling and cancelling IFR to proceed to another nearby airport. For example, Gatineau airport, which has VOR and NDB approaches, is only a couple of miles from Rockcliffe airport, which doesn't; assuming that you were IFR above an overcast layer, and ground vis was less than 3 SM (or the ceiling was a bit low), one way to get down through a cloud layer and land at Rockcliffe in MVFR would be to follow the Gatineau VOR or NDB approach until below the clouds, then request SVFR (cancelling IFR) and fly across the river to land at Rockcliffe.
Extremely busy airports like KSFO typically do not allow SVFR, since it makes a lot of work for the controllers and screws up the traffic flow. You do not need SVFR to land at KSFO or any other airport in its zone as long as visibility and ceiling are at or above the VFR limits for controlled airspace: people land VFR at KSFO, KLAX, KLGA, and other major U.S. airports all the time without an SVFR clearance.
I still do not understand exactly what SVFR is in the UK, but it sounds like it's something very different.
All the best,
David
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