Tonight, the capital will once again rumble with Taylor Swift fans as the singer begins the second round of London dates for her Eras tour. Her first round was a hit, a celebratory run-through of her greatest hits.
The capital, of course, is already gripped in Swift mania. A good or bad thing? Depends who you ask. One branch of an economic argument says she’s worth about a billion to the UK economy, whereas others argue the musician’s arrival in London brings with it a boom in hotel and restaurant prices leading to noticeable inflation (Swift-flation?). But it’s hard to argue that these run of shows don’t amount to the event of the year. And she’s shining a serious spotlight on the up-and-coming talent supporting her.
As if the walking stimulus package didn’t have enough headlines swirling around her visits, her past concerts have excited crowds so much that their reactions have tipped the seismic scale, registering as small earthquakes. The Palace of Westminster is already close to caving in. Is Swift about to collapse Parliament? Probably not, but think of the headlines.
Swift’s relationship with London goes back a long way and the earlier June Eras dates mark her first shows on UK shores in six years. Her first show here was at King’s College, September 2008, and for £10 the 200-strong crowd had a meet-and-greet thrown in with the show (and still it didn’t sell out). Since then, the bond has steeled, helped in part by the British boyfriends — Tom Hiddleston, Harry Styles, Calvin Harris, Joe Alwyn. Swift’s London is woven into her work, it shows itself in her songs.
In the wee hours of this morning, Swift was spotted leaving Annabel’s at about three (bold for a school night...) but for anyone who’s not a member, here’s where to visit and explore the city as Swiftie.
The pubs
Swift loves a boozer. Fine, not your dartboard-and-lager top places in Newham, but the smart places with NW postcodes. Fans think Cruel Summer alludes to Hampstead pub the Garden Gate (14 South End Road, NW3 2QE, thegardengatehampstead.co.uk) — the reference comes in passing, but the song’s about her early days dating Hampstead chappie Joe Alwyn, so it might just be true. Besides, she’s known to have popped into other Hampstead pubs, notably the Spaniards Inn (Spaniards Road, NW3 7JJ, thespaniardshampstead.co.uk), where she donned a black wig to go incognito. It sounds an eye-catching look for someone wanting to hide, but is more pub-friendly than some of her other methods — according to Zayn Malik, Swift sometimes folds herself into a suitcase to get to places unnoticed.
The Lover singer was also spotted the Flask (77 Highgate West Hill, N6 6BU, theflaskhighgate.com), a handsome, regency-fronted place with a suntrap terrace, and, supposedly, the Bell Inn in Marylebone (91 Bell Street, NW1 6TL, 020 7616 0666). This one is a little more suspect, in part because the Bell is a rough old place, and in part because some fans are convinced it was Swift’s doppelganger Ashlie Leechen instead. There’s also the Bull and Gate (389 Kentish Town Road, NW5 2TJ, bullandgatenw5.co.uk) to tick off the list — one of the stars of the End Game video.
The London pub getting the most uplift from the Swift effect is, sort of bafflingly, the Black Dog (112 Vauxhall Walk, SE11 5ER, theblackdogvauxhall.co.uk). Attention turned to it because track 17 of the Tortured Poets Department, Swift’s latest release, contains a strangely specific reference — “I am someone who until recent events you shared your secrets with and your location/You forgot to turn it off/And so I watch as you walk into some bar called The Black Dog.” Initially, fans suspected the line was about Alwyn going for a drink without letting Swift know his whereabouts. The tricky part? Swift never visited, and Alwyn denies having ever even been to Vauxhall, where the pub is. Some fans think the song is actually about Manchester-born Matt Healey of the 1975: if so, Swift’s Black Dog might really be a (now permanently closed) boozer in Manchester’s Northern Quarter.
The restaurants and bars
Fair play to Taylor, she likes a high/low blend. Her love of Kentish Delight Kebab Shop (381 Kentish Town Road, NW5 2TJ, 020 7998 1446) is by now well known — like the Bull and Last, it had a leading role in the End Game video — and was cemented this week when she put in a £450 order for her and her crew. Alwyn again, this one; owner Ahmed Khan said he’s been coming since he was a kid (though Khan’s run the place for a decade and the actor is 33, so the maths is out on this one). Swift’s go-to order is apparently either a chicken doner with garlic sauce and plenty of salad, or a shish with chilli sauce and salad, which Khan calls the Swift Kebab. She’s also said to be a fan of Nando’s (across London, nandos.co.uk), since Ed Sheeran introduced her to the chain while on tour.
More upmarket is Bob Bob Ricard (1 Upper James Street, W1F 9DF, bobbobricard.com), of Press for Champagne button fame, where Swift went with Alwyn to mark his 29th birthday, alongside Nandos-peddlar Ed Sheeran and his wife Cherry Seaborn. Alwyn was snapped clutching a dictionary on leaving, but they’re strictly optional here. Another known Swift-Alwyn date spot was Hawksmoor in Seven Dials (11 Langley Street, WC2H 9JG, thehawksmoor.com), though the pair stuck to a private room. To eat like Taylor, go for fillet steak, mac and cheese, and panna cotta.
Party Taylor seems keen on a bit of flash. Last week she was spotted in Notting Hill’s Casa Cruz (123A Clarendon Road, W11 4JG, casacruz.co.uk), a chic, copper-clad spot that serves unremarkable, South American-inspired dishes but knockout cocktails and is catnip for celebrities — Swift was there with Cara Delavigne, Kate Moss, Lena Dunham, Andrew Scott, Phoebe Waller Bridge and others, while Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney and Dua Lipa have all been in this year. Perhaps they put something in the air con. Read our review of the place here.
Dunham was also part of the gang when Swift took to another Notting Hill party spot, Laylow (10 Golborne Road, W10 5PE, laylow.co.uk) alongside Cameron Diaz and Sacha Baron Cohen. Good luck getting a table there, though — the place is currently closed. All hope is not lost: Swift has been sighted many times over the years at Sketch (9 Conduit Street, W1S 2XG, sketch.london), usually in the downstairs bar or first floor restaurant. But want to go true old-school Swift? Way back when, even before the Red album, she had a night out at the Chelsea Benihana (77 King's Road, SW3 4NX, benihanainternational.com), and a couple of years later was spotted with Tom Odell at the Groucho (45 Dean Street, W1D 4QB, thegrouchoclub.com). No word if she went to the Box afterwards, though.
The name-checks and need-to-knows
Like any celeb worth their salt, Swift goes in for five-star stays when she’s in town. The hotel most closely linked to her is the Savoy (Strand, WC2R 0EZ, thesavoylondon.com), another star of the End Game vid (her choice? The Royal Suite, a snip at £17,500 a night), and where she was shot for Vanity Fair in 2015. She’s also filmed at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel (Euston Road, NW1 2AR, marriott.com), for the I Don’t Wanna Live Forever duet with Zayn Malik — the less said about that the better — and is said to have stayed at the Connaught (16 Carlos Place, W1K 2AL, the-connaught.co.uk), Claridge’s (Brook Street, W1K 4HR, claridges.co.uk) and the Dorchester (53 Park Lane, W1K 1QA, dorchestercollection.com). Not short on taste, our Taylor.
But where else for fans without a few thousand to splash on a king-size bed and room service? Swift says 2014 track Clean came to her on the steps of Liberty (Regent Street, W1B 5AH, libertylondon.com), perhaps London’s grandest department store, though she’s more known for shopping at Portobello Road Market (W11 ILJ, portobelloroad.co.uk), in particular at Alice’s, where she’s alleged to have once spent £30,000 in just a few minutes while with Conor Kennedy (this was, you understand, a long time ago). Perhaps this is the spot that inspired 2023 track Timeless, which speaks of her love of antiques.
Anywhere else? Well, the Millennium Bridge gets a good showing in End Game, and Swift spent lockdown in Crouch End, before moving to Primrose Hill. Hampstead Heath is another — “the house by the Heath” is rather dolefully mentioned in So Long, London, but she alluded to swimming in its ponds on Paper Rings, and being “a Tennessee, Stella McCartney on the Heath” (no, me neither) on London Boy. That track also shouts out Camden Market, Shoreditch in the afternoon, high tea, and nights out in Brixton. Want to do London like Taylor? Brace for one hell of an Uber fare.
