Taylor Swift fans make London pub Black Dog their new place of pilgrimage

This quiet London pub never imagined becoming a haunt for Taylor Swift fans. But since the release of the American megastar's latest album, the "Swifties" have been flocking to the Black Dog, which they think is the bar of the song of the same name. Despite the rain, Dewmi Fernando, a 23-year-old tourist from Singapore, poses in front of the brick storefront topped with a black dog, next to the slate where the managers of this pub in the Vauxhall district, south of the Thames, wrote the words of Black Dog in chalk.

In this title, the 17th from the double album The Tortured Poets Department and The Anthology, the singer with 14 Grammy Awards says that she still has access to the location of her ex on her phone: “You forgot to deactivate it/And so I watch you walk into a bar called The Black Dog/And punch new holes in my heart.” The "Swifties", who love to decipher the hidden messages in the singer's lyrics, set out in search of this famous Black Dog... and came to the conclusion that it was the Vauxhall pub, after having discovered that Taylor Swift's ex-partner, British actor Joe Alwyn, lives nearby.

There's no guarantee that this pub is the one the megastar is talking about, who has created a real sense of intimacy with his audience through social media. But the news spread on TikTok and fans have been flocking to the Black Dog continuously ever since. “It’s been a whirlwind,” admits Lily Bottomley, events manager of the SC Soho group to which the pub belongs, to AFP. While in London, Dewmi Fernando immediately added the pub visit to her program: “I've been listening to Taylor Swift since I was eight years old (...) She was part of my childhood, my adolescence, and now of my adult life, it's as if I grew up with her.

“The day the album came out was like Christmas morning for us. We are very big fans, and wherever there is a reference to Taylor, we will look for it,” assures AFP Charlotte Garratt, 23, who lives in Bedfordshire (south-east of England) and came to spend the day in London with a friend. “We feel like detectives looking for what the lyrics mean, if there are hidden double meanings or metaphors,” she adds.

Even if the pub is not yet full in the middle of the afternoon, all the tables are reserved for the evening, and fans regularly stop in front of the front to take photos of the slate. This sudden enthusiasm is something to rejoice the establishment, at a time when the emblematic British pubs are going through a difficult period. Over the past two years, they have seen their costs explode due to galloping inflation, and are struggling to attract customers who are themselves affected by the purchasing power crisis.

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The Black Dog therefore decided to make the most of it, by adding “Taylor’s Version” burgers and cocktails to its slate. For the release of the album last Friday, he offered beers to all the fans capable of singing a Taylor Swift song, before stopping in the face of the influx of “Swifties”. “The last four days have been really busy (...) We are going to extend our opening hours to accommodate all these customers, and there is a real Taylor Swift effect on sales,” smiles Lily Bottomley, who however says no having “never seen” the singer in the bar.

Bookings have “increased significantly” for a “rather rainy week in April”, and the bar is already full for all of the star's London concert dates this summer. However, some accused the pub of going too far, after its manager told Sky News that he had looked at CCTV footage to see if Joe Alwyn or the pop star himself had been to the Black Dog these last months.