A London pub referenced in a Taylor Swift song has had to repaint its toilet walls twice in the last month due to fan graffiti.
The Black Dog pub in Vauxhall, south London was inundated with ‘Swifties’ after the Bad Blood singer dropped her latest album, The Tortured Poet’s Department.
But while the new-found fame resulted in booming business for the beer house, the hoards of fans have also forced the Vauxhall pub to hire more security staff and buy in more branded glasses.
They’ve also had to repaint the walls of their toilets because fans of the American singer have been scrawling messages including ‘We love TS’ in the cubicles.
Despite the vandalism, the business is still cashing on its fame and has launched official merchandise including hoodies, caps and t shirts with the pub’s logo.
Staff at the listed pub have been forced to paint their toilet walls twice in the last month alone because of the volume of graffiti that has been left by adoring fans.
Fans flocked after the album was released and eagle-eared Swifities noticed the reference to the Victorian-era pub.
The pub has become so popular, it has now overtaken traditional London landmarks in terms of popularity.
Research has revealed that the local pub has outperformed Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge in terms of Google Searches.
The popularity has left pub staff searching for more than 100 missing pint glasses which turn up on eBay, being bought and sold by die-hard fans.
Other fans of the American pop superstar have put a food menu and a pub business card on the auction website.
In a bid to cash in on the new-found success, the south London watering hole has transformed their menu, renaming drinks including a ‘Swift half pint,’ which customers can get for free if they sing a lyric.
The Black Dog has also launched its own range of merchandise including caps, hoodies and tote bags with the pub’s logo and image.
Jumpers start at £50 and come in white, black, grey and peach and feature the lyric ‘…some bar called The Black Dog’.
White t-shirts with a sketchy drawing of the outside of the pub go for £36 while embroidered hats are selling for £32.
Tote bags and travel mugs are also available to buy with shipping and VAT adding an extra £14.99 to all orders.
The American singer’s new album sparked a wave of interest in a range of London pubs which were mentioned in its lyrics.
Lyrics from the 17th song of the 31-track deluxe album include ‘You forgot to turn it [your location] off / And so I watch as you walk into some bar called The Black Dog,’
The reference led ‘Swifties’ to believe that it could be somewhere that the 34-year-old’s former ‘London Boy’ partner of six years, Joe Alwyn, snuck off to.
Despite all the attention around the pub, the owners and managers can’t confirm that Taylor Swift ever visited and have scoured hours of CCT footage in a bid to spot her.
In an interview with The Guardian Lily Bottomley, a manager for SC Soho, the small hospitality group that owns the Black Dog, said: ‘We’ve been looking at past security footage [for Swift].We haven’t found anything but you never know.
‘I’ve heard that whenever she visits places she puts a cap on, so we could have missed it. We’d love to have her back.’
