A South London pub is seeing its trade increase within the days following the discharge of Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Division. Lovers are satisfied that the pub, which stocks the call of Swift’s seventeenth observe “The Black Canine,” is the status quo Swift references within the tune. The Black Canine is now a must-visit location for Swifties — and its group of workers is wholeheartedly embracing it.
“We’re getting numerous Swifties. We’re loving it,” Lily Bottomley, the Black Canine’s occasions and social supervisor, advised Yahoo Leisure.
To deal with its new clientele, Bottomley mentioned the pub has since added Swift-related menu pieces, together with the Swift Burger and Taylor’s Variations of all cocktails because the album’s April 19 liberate.
“We’ve got the lyrics of ‘The Black Canine’ at the aspect of our pub. In order that’s without a doubt turn into a photograph vacation spot. We’ve got constantly about 10 to twenty folks in the market at all times,” she mentioned.
What’s Swift making a song about in ‘The Black Canine’?
Within the observe’s refrain, Swift sings, “Within the Black Canine, when any person performs the Beginning Line / And also you soar up, however she’s too younger to understand this tune / That used to be intertwined within the magic cloth of our dreaming / Outdated conduct die screaming.”
Preliminary fan theories instructed that Swift’s ex-boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn, impressed the observe. (In a up to date interview with Sky Information, Bottomley hinted at a “sure blond common” coming in.) Different Swifties, on the other hand, are satisfied that the 1975 frontman Matty Healy, who made headlines for his short-lived romance with Swift following her cut up from Alwyn in 2023, is the tune’s muse.
‘Being a part of the Taylor Swift lore is fantastic for us’
When Swift brings her “Eras Excursion” to Europe this summer time, which incorporates 8 displays in London, the Black Canine is aware of Swifties have added it to their shuttle plans.
“We’ve without a doubt noticed an build up in gross sales and bookings are in point of fact prime at the present time, particularly all over her excursion dates [at] Wembley [Stadium] in June and August,” Bottomley mentioned.
After receiving masses of requests, the Black Canine will quickly be promoting merch too.
“In truth, it’s simply been motivated through Swifties,” Bottomley defined of the pub’s determination to create clothes. “I believe being a part of the Taylor Swift lore is fantastic for us. [Swifties] need a piece of it as neatly as it’s this type of nice tune so we’re more than pleased to oblige.”
Stefan Peters, a self-proclaimed Swiftie and London local, paid the Black Canine a go to two days after TTPD used to be launched. He advised Yahoo Leisure that going there used to be a no brainer.
“I’ve beloved Taylor for years. Once I listened to ‘The Black Canine’ and learned it used to be an actual location in London, I knew I needed to go to,” Peters mentioned. “There have been a number of Swifties there. You want to pay attention teams discussing the album and speaking about how wonderful it’s.”
Michelle Lopez, a Swift fan from Chicago, advised Yahoo Leisure that she’ll be touring to London in Would possibly and booked a dinner reservation on the Black Canine.
For lots of Swifties, the enchantment of visiting The Black Canine lies in the truth that it’s now steeped in Swift historical past. Lovers really feel hooked up to her lyrics and now they’re in a position to step foot in a real position she visited and even perhaps frequented. There’s a tangibility to it.
“Lovers really feel so hooked up to Taylor that they need to see, pay attention, really feel [and] contact the rest that she will have skilled,” Danielle Marie, a Swiftie TikToker, advised Yahoo Leisure. “On this case, it’s a pub in London [that is] moderately in all probability a spot [where] she skilled numerous turmoil.”
Nikki King, any other Swift content material author, believes enthusiasts flock to places just like the Black Canine to deepen their figuring out of the pop megastar’s lyrics.
“Being in a spot she’s written about and even studying novels that impressed her artwork deepen our figuring out of her viewpoint,” she defined. “Identical to [how] enthusiasts visited Cornelia Boulevard in New York to be photographed with the road signal or Clara Bow’s megastar at the Hollywood Stroll of Popularity. … Those places are straight away immortalized.”
Swift isn’t the one artist whose enthusiasts are making pilgrimages to places tied to their favourite songs. In 2019, Harry Kinds name-dropped L.A.’s Beachwood Cafe on his observe “Falling” and it’s since turn into a extremely trafficked vacationer location. In a similar way, Sabrina Wood worker enthusiasts are reminiscent of her “Feather” track video through acting the tune’s choreography outdoor of the Brooklyn, N.Y., church the place it used to be filmed.
“There’s a high quality line that enthusiasts can move with [Swift’s] private existence and there’s extremes in each and every fandom … however in point of fact I believe the intent of maximum enthusiasts this is to only have the ability to in finding some type of connection that makes them really feel nearer to Taylor and her track,” Marie mentioned.