Harry Styles fans head in one direction – to star singer’s home village
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An image of Harry Styles is pictured at the train station in Holmes Chapel, north-west England, on March 4.
PHOTO: AFP
HOLMES CHAPEL, Britain – Boasting a centuries-old church, quaint pubs and rolling green countryside, Holmes Chapel looks like many other English villages.
But having played a formative part in British singer Harry Styles’ rise to global superstardom, nothing can be as it was for the village near Manchester, in north-west England.
Fans from around the world – dubbed Harries – flock there year-round to pay homage at several sites linked to the Watermelon Sugar (2019) singer.
With the former One Direction member releasing a new album and staging a Manchester concert on March 6, recent weeks have been extra busy.
“I’ve been looking forward to this day for too long,” Spanish student Elena Garcia, 21, said as she visited this week with two friends.
Like other Styles pilgrims before them, they stopped by the village train station where the ticket office has become a shrine of sorts, as well as the bakery where he once worked.
A poster of British singer Harry Styles at the train station in Holmes Chapel, north-west England, on March 4.
PHOTO: AFP
And, of course, they made their way to a spectacular viaduct where Harries have for years been leaving messages – after Styles wrote his own name there in the biopic One Direction: This Is Us (2013).
The 32-year-old pop sensation is also famously said to have had his first kiss beneath its 23 arches.
Fans of Harry Styles have for years been leaving messages on the Twemlow Viaduct in Holmes Chapel, north-west England.
PHOTO: AFP
“It was just beautiful,” Ms Katharina, 22, another of the trio, from Germany, said of the site known as Harry’s Wall. “Having the name on the wall’s a big thing.”
These days, fans are encouraged to sign and leave behind small slate stones to preserve the 180-year-old viaduct’s brickwork.
‘Demand’
Holmes Chapel – population nearly 7,000 – has welcomed thousands of Harries over the years.
Numbers swelled after the singer played two huge gigs in Manchester in 2022, according to the Holmes Chapel Partnership non-profit.
It handed out 5,000 maps showing Styles points of interest the following year. It then started offering near-daily guided tours for much of 2024.
Mr Peter Whiers, who heads the partnership, noted the response was phenomenal with people arriving at different times of the day to see the sights.
“It became a little bit difficult to meet the demand,” he said. “For every one person on the guided tour, there were probably another 10 that came here and did it under their own steam.”
Bartender Chloe Thomason, a self-proclaimed superfan from nearby Congleton, was one of the 11 guides hired after acing an 80-question exam about Styles and Holmes Chapel.
The 24-year-old – who is set to attend the album-reveal concert on March 6 – cherished the period.
She said: “I loved finding out about everybody... how they found Harry, if they were a new fan, an old fan... and it was just so good.”
The tours are now self-guided, with the partnership offering an online version for fans worldwide who cannot make it to Holmes Chapel.
Former Harry Styles walking tour guide Chloe Thomason gestures to the names and messages written on the Twemlow Viaduct in Holmes Chapel, north-west England, on March 4.
PHOTO: AFP
‘Heights’
Styles moved to the village as a youngster, attending schools there and, later, beginning his journey to A-lister status on trains to London for reality music competition The X Factor in 2010.
At the auditions, he described it as quite boring but picturesque.
Later that year, he was chosen to be part of One Direction, remaining in the boy band until an indefinite hiatus in 2015.
The members launched solo careers and none has enjoyed more subsequent success than the boy from Holmes Chapel.
At W Mandeville Bakery, fans take selfies next to a full-length poster photo of a teenage Styles wearing an apron, taken when he worked there part-time.
A poster of One Direction singer Harry Styles, from when he worked at W Mandeville Bakery in Holmes Chapel, north-west England, on March 4.
PHOTO: AFP
Down the road, a Chinese restaurant he reportedly took American singer Taylor Swift to when they briefly dated more than a decade ago is also a magnet for Harries.
Meanwhile, the station now features a mural bearing his image, designed by two local artists.
Mr Graham Blake, the station master for 28 years, can still remember the budding performer bound for the capital.
“I knew he had talent. He used to sing on the platform... Kings Of Leon and stuff like that,” he said. “He had a good voice, but I never thought he’d reached the heights that he has now. It’s incredible. But it’s all hard work.”
A fans message book in his memorabilia-packed ticket office – all provided by Harries – has reached its 12th volume.
Styles’ dad, who still lives nearby, collects each one once full, with the star also known to stop by occasionally.
Styles has visited his old school, once donating computers, according to a long-time local Andrea Pearson, whose wedding the singer attended.
“We’re just so proud of him,” she said. “He’s never forgotten his roots.” AFP
