‘Taylor Swift secretly filmed her 90s throwback Opalite video on our street – we had no idea’
Taylor Swift’s new video was filmed in a quiet London street with neighbours hoping the star will boost house prices and tempt more A-listers to make this leafy suburb their home.
The owner of the £1.5m semi-detached home near Pinner, chosen by Swift for her 90s nosalgia-drenched Opalite video, rents it out for pop videos with the Spice Girls also filming there.
He told the Metro that he had signed a non-disclosure agreement with Swift’s production company so was unable to discuss the shoot for the song destined to top the charts.
During filming the front of the house was screened off so that locals could not disrupt the star.
The video, about a fictional spray called Oplalite and its effects, features a series of shots in the house, including one with Swift in a living room with furnishings typical of the 1990s.
In one scene shot inside the home she takes part in a nostalgic exercise workout as was the fashion of the time.
The front of the house is also featured as actor Domhnall Gleeson, who plays Swift’s partner, collects a package from the doorstep.
The Metro spoke to neighbours with few aware that Swift, one of the top-selling female singers of all time, had been filming inside.
How have locals reacted?
Devita Patel, 50, a mother-of-two, said: ‘I can’t believe it was Taylor Swift that is absolutely amazing.
‘The house is used regularly for filming and we did have the Spice Girls, but not with Posh, a few years ago.
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‘I’m going to tell my nieces in America immediately they absolutely love Taylor Swift. It’s so exciting for the area, wow, I just can’t believe it. I would like to have seen her but when they film it’s very private.’
(Picture: John Dunne)
She added: ‘My kids have asked me to open up our home for these video shoots, it sounds like a good business.
‘It would be disruptive for the family, but I would have done it for Taylor Swift.
‘This shoot has put our area on the map for sure. It’s very exciting.’
Another neighbour told Metro the house owner, who moves out while the filming is on, has made a tidy profit from allowing film crews into his home.
The pensioner said: ‘He has done well over the years. He has the house listed with an agency as a location but it’s mainly been used for adverts.
‘He has done up the house with proceeds, a new kitchen and other things.
‘It was all very secret this time I had no idea Taylor Swift was in there. There was a screen outside, it was literally shrouded in secrecy.
‘When they film there is some disruption with the vans they use clogging up the road but it’s not too bad. Fair play to the guy who owns the house.’
Another neighbour said: ‘We heard a rumour it was Taylor but we never saw her. I like her music and it’s quite boring and suburban around here so this is quite a shock, but a good one.
‘Maybe the house prices will go up and other A listers will come to visit or even live here.’
Taylor Swift’s love of Britain
Swift’s video is a testament to her love of Britain and her huge fan base. The house where she filmed the video is just a few miles from Wembley Stadium where she played to sell-out audiences as part of her world Eras tour in 2024.
Other unlikely London spots were featured in the video including a dance scene in the Mildmay Working Men’s Club in north London.
Flocks of Swifties are making the pilgrimage to a run-down shopping centre in south London.
The star-studded video for Opalite, destined for the top of the charts, was also filmed in the Whitgift in Croydon, once a thriving state-of-the-art shopping mall but now past its glory days.
But Swift and her film crew identified the centre as the perfect backdrop for her Rom Com themed video released at the weekend, which already has amassed more than eight million views.
The Shake It Off songstress even paid for the workers at the 1970s built shopping mall to take the day off when they shot the video last year.
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