As Taylor Swift shocks/surprises/amuses the world, and London in particular, by filming her Opalite music video in Croydon, we follow in her footsteps, taking in the other Taylor Swift London locations which you can visit. Don’t forget your Taylor Swift Tube map to help you navigate the capital.
Taylor Swift pub: The Black Dog, Vauxhall
“And so I watch as you walk into some bar called the Black Dog” croons Swift on The Black Dog, a track from melancholy album The Tortured Poets Department, released in 2024. And so was born a new stop on the Taylor Swift Tourist Trail in London: Vauxhall’s Black Dog pub.
There’s no conclusive proof that Swift was talking about this pub — or any pub, prone as she is to metaphors in her songwriting. But given that much of that album focuses on Tay Tay’s time living in London, and that this is the only pub in the capital with that name, Swifties latched onto it and committed HARD, as is their way.
Taylor said in a 2025 BBC Radio 2 interview that nobody knows what the song is about, claiming “They think they know but they have no idea”. The Black Dog in Cork has been suggested as an alternative venue. Our money’s on the black dog as a euphemism for depression.
The pub’s staff hinted that Taylor’s ex-partner Joe Alwyn was a regular, seeming to confirm that the pub is indeed the subject of the song, and quickly jumped on the Swiftie bandwagon by launching a range of merch, no doubt cashing in beautifully when hundreds of thousands of Swiftie tourists passed through London just a few months later when the Eras Tour came to town.
Owner of The Black Dog Pub, Jonathan Murray, said of the sudden attention in May 2024:
We’ve repainted the toilets twice from die-hard Swifties scrawling ‘We love TS’ all over the walls. It’s been an absolute whirlwind, but we’re thrilled to welcome new faces to the pub.
Alwyn, by the way, claimed he’d never been to Vauxhall.
Opalite music video: The Whitgift Centre, Croydon
We never expected to be writing “Taylor Swift” and “Croydon” in the same sentence, but here we are. In late 2025, shortly after the release of her 12th album, The Life of A Showgirl, and a London-centric media tour to promote it, there were rumours that Taylor had crossed the Atlantic once again to film her next music video at… Croydon’s Whitgift Centre.
It makes more sense when you see the video, released in February 2026, for her single Opalite. Lewis Capaldi, Domhnall Gleeson and Graham Norton appear in the film, which Swift said she was inspired to create while on the Graham Norton Show (filmed in London) during that media tour. The dated decor of the Whitgift, plus the fact that half of the video’s cast are UK based, was enough to lure Swift into travelling back to London a few weeks later for filming.
Despite headlines of Swift filming in a “derelict” or “abandoned” shopping centre, the Whitgift Centre (or WhitSwift as we’re officially rebranding it) is very much alive and kicking, though it’s fair to say it’s past its prime (the shop names in the video are fake, and all nod to other songs or lyrics). At least it was… just wait until the Swifties arrive. If anyone’s considering opening a pretzel stand in CR0, now would be an excellent time to do so.
The Mildmay Club, Stoke Newington
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East London’s Mildmay Club was a secondary location for the Opalite music video: the scene of Taylor Swift and Domhnall Gleeson dancing in glittery blue shell suits (another sentence we never thought we’d write…) was filmed there.
End Game music video: Kentish Delight kebab shop and Bull & Gate pub
Opalite isn’t the first Taylor Swift music video shot in London. Back in 2016, the star famously filmed part of the End Game music video at the previously-innocuous Kentish Delight kebab shop in Kentish Town. Less well-publicised was the fact that other scenes from the video were filmed upstairs at the Bull & Gate pub a few doors away, in a room which can be hired out for parties. The Millennium Bridge is among the other landmarks featured in the video, which also shows Swift riding a London bus.
Taylor Swift mural at Wembley Stadium
In summer 2024, Swifties descended on London in their hundreds of thousands, decked out in sequins, bags full of friendship bracelets, when the Eras Tour took over Wembley Stadium for eight sparkling nights. Wembley Park went all out, installing a Swiftie mural outside the stadium (see top image), and a second on the so-called Spanish Steps nearby.
The steps were repainted yellow in summer 2025 when Coldplay came to town, but as of early 2026, the mural is still very much in situ — and has weathered well, thanks to its sheltered position under a bridge on Pacific Crescent (exact location here).
Where else has Taylor Swift performed in London?
Take a trip down memory lane at all of the venues in London which Taylor Swift has played.
Before 2024’s Eras Tour (read our review here), Swift had also played two dates at Wembley Stadium during the 2018 Reputation Stadium Tour.
Taylor Swift at BST Hyde Park
In 2015, she brought the 1989 World Tour to BST Hyde Park (we were in the crowd for that one!). Swift was also scheduled to headline BST Hyde Park as part of the Loverfest Tour in 2020 (and additional London dates on that tour were expected to be announced too) but it never happened because… it was 2020.
Taylor Swift at The O2
For 2014’s Red Tour, and 2011’s Speak Now Tour, Taylor Swift played The O2 in North Greenwich. We were there for the Red Tour:
Taylor Swift at Wembley Arena
In 2009 on her first major tour, the Fearless tour, Taylor Swift played at Wembley Arena, the smaller, indoor venue close to Wembley Stadium.
Taylor Swift at King’s College London
Taylor Swift’s first ever UK gig, all the way back in 2008 was at Tutu’s, the King’s College student bar, which was located in the Macadam Building on Surrey Street and named after King’s College alumni Desmond Tutu.
Tutu’s itself closed in 2013. After the Eras Tour passed through London in 2024, the King’s College alumni group tracked down three students who were there. Being both defunct, and located within the university building, the public can’t visit, but my gosh we’d be surprised if some sort of plaque isn’t erected there in years to come. We might start the campaign ourselves.
Those are Taylor Swift’s own London shows, but she’s also made guest appearances alongside other artists including Bon Iver (Wembley Arena, October 2022) to perform their joint song, Exile, and The 1975 (The O2, January 2023). She also performed a Red Tour promo show at Westfield London in 2012
London locations from London Boy
In August 2019, with the release of album Lover, Swift introduced the world to her song London Boy, in which she namechecks her way around the capital in a geographically questionable order. The opening line, a clip of Idris Elba saying “We can go drivin’ in, on my scooter, uh, you know, just riding in London” was the subject of amusement among Swifties when, in January 2026, Idris Elba was fined for speeding… on a scooter… in London.
Among the London shoutouts in the song’s lyrics: Camden Market, Highgate, the West End, Brixton, Shoreditch, Hackney, Louis V[uitton] up on Bond Street, the Heath and Soho. No Croydon, sadly.
Speaking of Camden Market, it’s home to Soul Look, a stall selling items inspired by Taylor Swift’s songs and lyrics.
New Heights at Passyunk Avenue
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There’s no proof that Taylor Swift has ever visited cheesesteak-slinging restaurant Passyunk Avenue – though she is a Pennsylvania girl by birth, and was known to support the Philly Eagles before a certain Chiefs player entered her life. But the Fitzrovia branch of Passyunk Avenue was visited by that player, Swift’s partner Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce, when both were in London for the Eras Tour in summer 2024. They liked it so much that they recorded an episode of their podcast, New Heights, there — the episode in which Travis revealed the details of his surprise appearance on the Eras Tour Wembley stage a few days prior.
All photos by Londonist.
