It’s midweek lunchtime on a simple residential street in Vauxhall, south London. There aren’t many people around: the occasional dog walker, a few joggers, a couple of delivery drivers. It’s pretty much what you’d expect on a rainy work day.
But around the corner, it’s a different story. A red brick Victorian pub, covered in hanging flower baskets and mosaics, is an unexpected hive of activity.
Despite the drizzle, people are sitting outside, drinking pints of beer and cups of coffee. Around him are a handful of journalists, holding microphones, cameras and notebooks. Passersby stop, point and pose for photographs. Every few minutes, excited customers get out of the black cabs and head inside, where all the tables are occupied.
Welcome to The Black Dog. A local London pub that has become an unexpected center of attention and on the tourist map thanks to musician Taylor Swift.
unexpected fame
Last Friday, Swift released her latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” along with 15 surprise bonus songs that make up “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.”
On Instagram, Swift described the music as chronicling a “fleeting, fatalistic moment in time, one that was both sensational and painful in equal measure.” The record appears to be inspired by the aftermath of Swift’s breakup with her long-term partner, British actor Joe Alwyn, which saw her plunge into a brief but intense relationship with another Londoner: 1975 singer Matty Healy. .
Among the 31 songs, which range from upbeat synth pop that masks heartbreak to slower, folk-inspired songs that lean toward sadness, is a moody, reflective song called “The Black Dog,” in which Swift sings about an ex who left his ex. Cell phone location settings activated after breakup:
“And then I watch as you walk
In a bar called The Black Dog
And drill new holes in my heart”
As soon as these lyrics hit the internet, Swifties started digging. Was The Black Dog a real place in London or just a fictitious name chosen for its symbolic meaning?
Maddie Essig, an American college student studying abroad in London, was among the fans who immediately started Googling.
“Joe and Taylor spent a lot of time in London,” Essig says. “I thought it would be around here somewhere.”
Essig is sitting inside The Black Dog at a table by the window, across from her friend, fellow American Abroad and Swift fan, Jenna Spackey. When the two begin chatting with CNN Travel, they have just finished their lunch at the pub (Spackey had a Caesar salad, Essig had the classic British pub fish and chips).
The two friends had never been to Vauxhall before. But once they realized The Black Dog was real, they hopped on a subway, partly as a Swiftie pilgrimage and partly to celebrate the end of their college semester. They both only have a couple of weeks left in the UK before returning to the US: Essig to Baltimore, Maryland and Spackey to Houston, Texas. They call this period their “So Long, London” era, an homage to another song from “The Tortured Poets Department” that references the capital of the United Kingdom.
This new album is not the first time Swift’s name includes London locations in her music. In her 2019 track “London Boy,” believed to be about Alwyn, Swift describes enjoying “nights out in Brixton” and “Shoreditch afternoons,” as well as “walking through Camden Market” and heading to Highgate, the West End and even finding joy in the “gray sky, a rainy taxi ride.”
“People will go to all the places she lists in the song,” Spackey says of “London Boy.” “I feel like The Black Dog will definitely be added to the hit list.”
pub perspective
While no one – least of all Swift – has confirmed that the Vauxhall Black Dog is the inspiration for her song (there is another Black Dog based in London, for example, a brewery further out of the city, in the suburbs of Brentford, while (some fans have confirmed that the Vauxhall Black Dog is the inspiration for their song). (he pointed to a bar in Cork, Ireland, with the same name), South London’s Black Dog has leaned into her unexpected fame.
There is now a sign in the window quoting the lyrics. On Instagram, the pub added “home of tortured poets” to its bio. Inside The Black Dog, the cocktail list on the chalkboard has the appendix “Taylor’s Version,” a reference to the way Swift delineates recent re-recorded tracks from her originals.
Lily Bottomley, social media and events manager at SC Soho, the small hotel group that owns The Black Dog, tells CNN Travel that she first heard about the song through her own personal social media channels.
“I saw ‘Black Dog’ and I thought, ‘Oh…’ And then everything took off. And within half a day, even before the album was released, people showed up,” Bottomley says.
The photo shows an employee at The Black Dog pub preparing an ‘Aperol Spritz (Taylor’s version)’ cocktail. (Toby Melville/Reuters via CNN Newsource)
Over the weekend, the pub hired extra security: “just as a precaution, nothing crazy happened.”
Then followed “a very busy Monday” and a slew of bookings for late June and mid-August, when Swift will play eight sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium. The Black Dog plans to open early and close later on those days. When Bottomley talks to CNN Travel, he points to the already packed pub: “We’re also expecting a busy Tuesday.”
There has been press coverage around the world and, as Bottomley speaks to CNN Travel, other news outlets are hosting live streams and filming TikToks outside the pub.
Black Dog was already active on Instagram before Swift’s fame, but Bottomley and her team created a TikTok account over the weekend.
“Our TikTok, within 72 hours, had over 200,000 likes and a million views after it was created,” Bottomley says. “It is immense”.
Meanwhile, the pub’s Instagram following has “tripled, almost quadrupled now”, says Bottomley. People follow and comment from all over the world.
The Black Dog is “a local pub”, says Bottomley; It is generally known for its “calm and welcoming atmosphere most of the time.”
Its interior is cozy, elegant and more gastropub than noisy bar.
But the influx of enthusiastic Swift fans has been a joy, Bottomley says.
“We’ve sung together,” he says, adding that the team is “working” on the idea of a Swift-themed karaoke night.
So far, all the fans who have come have brought a positive and contagious good vibe.
“Last night a lot of Swifties who didn’t know each other came and they were pulling together chairs and tables, creating a fantastic atmosphere,” says Bottmley. “They are predominantly women and it is really positive for that community to come together in a pub.”
While many fans, like Essig and Spackey, believe “The Black Dog” is about Joe Alwyn, others think Matty Healy could be the subject (references to smoking and the ex’s penchant for an “esoteric joke” seem more coded by Healy).
Bottomley neither confirms nor denies anything, but does hint that the pub has “a certain blonde regular”, apparently in reference to Alwyn’s blonde hair colour.
As for Swift herself, Bottomley says she’s “never seen her” at The Black Dog (which, again, fits with the song’s lyrics, suggesting that Swift’s narrator is unfamiliar with the bar).
“But you never know,” Bottomley says. “We would love to have her.”
Writing stage songs
When CNN Travel visits, there’s no time to sample The Black Dog’s enticing food menu, but this writer opts for a Swift-approved glass of Sauvignon Blanc (in another new song, “The Alchemy,” Swift compares the thrill of a new love adventure over a glass of wine: “This happens once in a few lifetimes/These chemicals hit me like white wine,” he sings).
Meanwhile, my partner tries The Black Dog’s signature stout and gives it the seal of approval. The two drinks cost £14.65 (about $18), which is about what you’d expect in London in 2024.
The stout is served in a pint glass with the pub name printed on it and the accompanying black dog logo. Bottomley says no one has stolen any of these glasses yet (much to his relief), but the pub is in the process of manufacturing products, so visitors will be able to take a glass home in no time.
“If The Black Dog sold products, I would buy something from their store,” says Avangeline Strasburg, a Swift fan. “Having something from a place I visited, that is also mentioned in a song by my favorite artist, would be a really cool 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, perfect for my birthday, perfect for our trip!’” Strasburg says.
When the two friends realized that The Black Dog was a real pub, they knew they had to include a visit in their London itinerary.
“We wanted to see it for ourselves,” Hageman says.
Friends Katie Hageman and Avangeline Strasburg are vacationing in London. When they heard about The Black Dog, they had to add the pub to their itinerary. (Francesca Street / CNN via CNN Newsource)
The two friends describe the pub as “quaint” and add that it’s actually not what they expected based on the lyrics of the song.
“Listening to those lyrics, I think we assumed it would be more of a dive bar with loud music,” Hageman says.
As they peruse The Black Dog’s food menu and decide what to have for lunch, Hageman and Strasburg talk to CNN Travel about whether Swift’s song “The Black Dog” is really about this pub, and whether the song is about Matty Healy or Joe Alwyn, or both.
It’s fun to speculate, they agree, but “maybe it’s not even about a certain person.”
In the end, it doesn’t really matter, the two friends decide. What Strasburg and Hageman are most excited about are the evocative, mood-setting 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 images – like the scarf in “All Too Well” that her ex still has in a “drawer even now” – allows listeners to put themselves in Swift’s shoes. Sure, she’s a Grammy-winning billionaire who lives a life far removed from what most of us consider ordinary, but Swift has a knack for drawing emotion from everyday details we can relate to.
And when Swift describes places, whether the rented apartment in “Cornelia Street” or the “salt house on the coast” in “The Last Great American Dynasty,” she does so with a particularity and fervor that allows listeners to draw a picture. image in their minds. ‘ eyes.
“She always includes little details, sometimes they’re vague, sometimes they’re specific, but they’re always a part of her life,” Strasburg says.
Hageman compares the song “The Black Dog” to a “fable”; It’s probably not based entirely on reality. It may not be a real place. This may not be a real person.
“This made the song even more relatable to us,” he says. “And I think of all those who have created stories based on the brilliant filtered details we perceive of others’ lives from the outside.”