A Swiftie’s Guide to London

17.06.2024 - 21:53 / cntraveler.com / Taylor Swift / Conde Nast

You don't have to be a die-hard Taylor Swift fan for the (record-breaking!) Eras Tour to be on your radar. Each weekend, she lights up the stage—there in her glittering prime, the lights refracting sequined stars off her silhouette every night—during over three hours of sparkly Broadwayesque performances, rolling into cities all over the globe from New York to Tokyo to Melbourne to Madrid. Finally, this summer, London gets its own taste of the Taylor Swift show. The Eras Tour has sold out eight dates at Wembley between June and August, equating to nearly one million Swifties descending on the city.

And while Ms. Swift is no stranger to name-dropping locations into her songs other than New York (we’re looking at you, Destin, Florida), we’d argue that there’s no city anywhere else in the world that has her attention and inspires her songwriting references quite so acutely. From visiting London during the early years of her career to moving to the city during her relationship with actor Joe Alwyn, Swift’s got enough London references throughout her discography to form a full tour for keen fans with time to kill. So, we’ve listed here all the London references any self-respecting Swiftie needs to know—and visit—this summer.

A version of this article originally appeared in Condé Nast Traveller UK.

The Black Dog, a pub in Vauxhall, is mentioned in Swift’s latest album The Tortured Poets Department.

The most recent of Swift’s London shoutouts is also her most specific. In her 2024 album The Tortured Poet’s Department, Swift dedicates a whole song to a pub where she watches her ex-lover stroll into one night after he forgets to stop sharing his location. “And so I watch as you walk, into some bar called The Black Dog,” she sings.

Immediately, dedicated Swifties scrambled to uncover which bar exactly she mentions in the song. It wasn’t long before The Black Dog, a pub in Vauxhall, revealed themselves to be the culprit through a TikTok that confirmed one of Swift’s exes was a regular there.

Since then, fans have descended on the South London pub—which is already worth a visit even without the Taylor hype. When I popped in recently, I noticed that the team even sells commemorative pint glasses so patrons can take a piece of the party home with them. If you visit, I hope it's not shitty in The Black Dog.

Where to find it: The Black Dog, 112 Vauxhall Walk

Swift has name-checked the leafy neighborhood of Hampstead Heath at least twice in her huge discography.

Rumors fly that when Swift lived in London, she rented a house near Hampstead Heath, a huge and bucolic stretch of parkland in North London. She certainly seems to allude to this in The Tortured Poets Department break-up track “So Long London,” singing, “I