It's midweek lunchtime on a modest residential street in Vauxhall, south London. There aren't many people here – the occasional dog walker, a few joggers, a few delivery drivers. It's pretty much what you'd expect on a drizzly work day.
But turning the corner is another story. A red-brick Victorian pub, decorated with hanging flower baskets and tiled with mosaics, is an unexpected hotbed of activity.
Despite the drizzle, people still sat outside, drinking pints of beer and cups of coffee. Around them were a number of journalists – holding microphones, cameras, notebooks. Passersby stopped, pointed and posed for photos. Every few minutes, excited customers streamed out of black taxis and headed inside, where every table was occupied.
Welcome to Black Dog. A local pub in London has become an unexpected sensation and has been put on the tourist map thanks to musician Taylor Swift.
Unexpected popularity
Last Friday, Swift released her latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” along with 15 additional surprise songs that make up “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.”
On Instagram, Swift described the music as capturing a “fleeting and fateful moment — one that was both sensational and heartbreaking in equal measure.” The record appears to have been inspired by the aftermath of Swift's breakup with her longtime partner, British actor Joe Alwyn, which saw her enter into a short-lived relationship. but intensely with another Londoner – singer born in 1975 Matty Healy.
Amidst the 31 songs – which range from upbeat synth pop songs that cover pain, to slower, folk-inspired songs that lean toward sadness – is a moody, contemplative song that contains called “The Black Dog”, in which Swift sings about an ex who left him. Mobile phone location setting after breakup:
“And so I watched you walk away
Enter a bar called The Black Dog
And bore new holes in my heart”
As soon as these lyrics appeared online, Swifties began investigating. Is The Black Dog a real location in London or just a fictional name chosen for its symbolic meaning?
Maddie Essig, an American college student studying abroad in London, was among the fans who immediately started using Google.
“Joe and Taylor spent a lot of time in London,” Essig said. “I guess it will be around here somewhere.”
Essig was sitting inside The Black Dog at a table by the window, across from her friend – American expat and Swift fan – Jenna Spackey. When the two began chatting with CNN Travel, they had just finished a pub lunch (Spackey had the cesar salad, Essig had the classic English pub fish and chips).
These two friends had never been to Vauxhall before. But when they realize The Black Dog is real, they hop on a subway train — partly as a Swiftie pilgrimage and partly to celebrate the end of their college semester. Both only have a few weeks left in England before returning to the US – Essig to Baltimore, Maryland and Spakey to Houston, Texas. They called this period the “So Long, London” era, in homage to another song from “The Tortured Poets Department” that referred to the capital of Great Britain.
This new record isn't the first time Swift has named London locations in her music. In the 2019 song “London Boy” – said to be about Alwyn – Swift describes enjoying “nights out in Brixton” and “Shoreditch in the afternoon”, as well as “strolling Camden Market” and heading to Highgate, the West End and even find joy in “grey skies, a rainy taxi ride”.
“People would go to all the places she listed in the song,” says Spackley of “London Boy.” “I feel like The Black Dog will definitely be added to the hit list.”
Perspective of the pub
Although no one – least of all Swift – has actually confirmed the Vauxhall Black Dog as the inspiration for her song (there's another Black Dog based in London, for example, a beer hall located far from the city on the outskirts of Brentford – while some fans have pointed to a bar with the same name in Cork, Ireland), the Black Dog in south London has achieved unexpected fame.
There is now a sign in the window quoting the song's lyrics. On Instagram, the pub added “home of tortured poets” to its bio. Inside The Black Dog, the blackboard cocktail list has an appendix “Taylor's Version” – a reference to Swift's way of distinguishing her recently re-recorded tracks from the originals.
Lily Bottomley, director of events and social media for SC Soho, the boutique hotel group that owns The Black Dog, told CNN Travel that she first heard about the song through her personal social media channels. his cause.
“I saw 'Black Dog' and I thought, 'Wow…' And then it just spiraled. And within half a day – even before the album was released, we had people coming,” Bottomley said.
Pictured is a staff member at The Black Dog pub mixing an 'Aperol Spritz (Taylor's Edition)' cocktail. (Toby Melville/Reuters via CNN Newsource)
Over the weekend, the pub hired extra security guards – “just as a precaution, nothing crazy happened”.
Then came “a really busy Monday” and a flurry of bookings for late June and mid-August, when Swift will play eight sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium. Black Dog plans to open early and close later on those days. As Bottomley spoke to CNN Travel, she gestured toward the already packed pub: “We're also expecting a busy Tuesday.”
Newspapers around the world reported it, and when Bottomley spoke to CNN Travel, other news outlets were staging lives and filming TikToks outside the pub.
Black Dog was active on Instagram before Swift's fame, but Bottomley and her team set up a TikTok account over the weekend.
“Our TikTok, within 72 hours, received over 200,000 likes and a million views after it was created,” Bottomley said. “It's so vast.”
Meanwhile, the pub’s Instagram following has “tripled, almost quadrupled,” Bottomley said. People are watching and commenting from all over the world.
Bottomley said the Black Dog is “a local pub” – it is generally known for its “quiet, cozy atmosphere most of the time”.
Its interior is attractive, classy – and there are more good eateries than rowdy bars.
But Swift's passionate fan base is a joy, Bottomley said.
“We have had sing-alongs,” she said, adding the group is “studying” the idea of a Swift-themed karaoke night.
So far, the fans who have stopped by have brought a positive and contagious atmosphere.
“Last night we had a lot of Swifties come in, people who didn't know each other and they were pulling chairs together, pulling tables together, such a great atmosphere,” Bottmley said. “It's mainly women and it's positive to have that community come together in a pub.”
While many fans — like Essig and Spackey — believe that “The Black Dog” is about Joe Alwyn, others have suggested that Matty Healy could be the subject (referring to his smoking and hobbies). ex about an “esoteric joke” that seems more Healy coded).
Bottomley wouldn't confirm or deny anything, but she suggested that the pub had “a regular blonde,” seemingly referring to Alwyn's light hair color.
As for Swift herself, Bottomley says she “never saw her” in The Black Dog (which again aligns with the song's lyrics, which suggest that Swift's narrator is unfamiliar with the bar). bar).
“You never know, though,” Bottomley said. “We would love to have her.”
Write a scene-setting song
When CNN Travel visited, there wasn't time to sample The Black Dog's delicious-looking food menu, but this writer did opt for a Swift-approved glass of Sauvignon Blanc (in another new track, “The Alchemy,” Swift compares the rush of new love to a glass of wine: “This happens every few lifetimes/These chemicals hit me like white wine,” she sings).
Meanwhile, my companion tried The Black Dog's signature stout and gave it his seal of approval. These two drinks cost £14.65 (about $18), which is about what you'd expect in London in 2024.
The stout is served in a glass printed with the pub's name and accompanied by the black dog logo. Bottomley said no one had stolen any of the glasses yet – much to her relief – but the pub was in the process of making the goods so visitors could take one home before long .
“If The Black Dog sold merch, I would buy something from their store,” says Swift fan Avaveline Strasburg. “Having something from the place I visit, also mentioned in a song by my favorite artist, would be a really great souvenir.”
Florida-based Strasburg and her friend and fellow Floridian Katie Hageman are currently in London on vacation, celebrating Strasburg's 29th birthday.
“I thought, 'Oh my God, Taylor is releasing an album, right on my birthday, right on our trip!'” Strasburg said.
When the two friends realized The Black Dog was actually a pub, they knew they had to squeeze it in on their London journey.
“We wanted to see it for ourselves,” Hageman said.
Friends Katie Hageman and Avaveline Strasburg are on vacation in London. When they heard about The Black Dog, they had to include the pub in their itinerary. (Francesca Street/CNN via CNN Newsource)
The two friends described the pub as “weird” – adding that it wasn't really what they expected based on the lyrics.
“Hearing those lyrics, I think we assumed it would be more of a dive bar with loud music,” Hageman said.
As they peruse The Black Dog's food menu, deciding what to have for lunch, Hageman and Strasburg chat with CNN Travel about whether Swift's song “The Black Dog” is really about the pub this or not – and whether the song is about Matty Healy, Joe Alwyn, or both.
It's fun to speculate, they agree, but “maybe it doesn't even involve a certain person.”
In the end, it didn't really matter, the two friends decided. What excited Strasburg and Hageman most of all were the scene-setting, evocative lyrics of “The Black Dog,” which are a staple of Swift's songwriting.
This type of writing is key to Swift's success. The specificity of the imagery — such as the scarf in “All Too Well” that her ex keeps in “a drawer even now” — allows listeners to put themselves in Swift's shoes. Sure, she's a Grammy Award-winning billionaire leading a world of life far removed from what most of us consider normal, but Swift has a knack for drawing emotion from familiar details. daily.
And when Swift describes locations — whether the rented apartment on “Cornelia Street” or the “saltbox house on the beach” in “The Last Great American Dynasty,” she does so with a special touch. distinctive and enthusiastic that makes the listener imagine an image in their mind's eye.
“She always brings up little details, sometimes they're vague, sometimes they're specific — but they're always a part of her life,” Strasburg said.
Hageman compares the song “The Black Dog” to a “fable” — perhaps not entirely based on reality. It may not be a real place. It may not be about a real person.
“This makes the song even more relatable to us,” she said. “And I think of all the people who create stories based on the sparkling, distilled details we see of each other's lives from the outside.”
