'People send us trinkets from all over the world' - meet the George Michael super fans keeping his memory alive

In the memorial garden opposite George Michael’s former Highgate mansion, which came to be in the weeks after his death on Christmas Day last year, the bouquets of flowers are piling up. On a dank December day, the garden is an oasis of twinkling fairylights, pictures of the pop star sway in the wind, and a woman in her forties is bent over, heroically lighting hundreds of tea lights in the drizzle. It is slippery underfoot - the grass has turned to mud in the past week - but this little patch of land in the middle of a north London street is beautiful in its way. Flanked by imposing Georgian townhouses, there is no doubt this sea of banners, purple Christmas trees and flags looks out of place here, where even a brightly coloured front door would seem garish. But in the last year the garden has taken on a life of its own, providing a haven in which his fans gather from around the world to remember him. 

A year on from Michael’s sudden death from natural causes at the age of 53, his devoted fans (or “lovelies”, as they are known) are preparing to mark the anniversary of his passing. They will congregate here over the weekend to sing the songs which have been the soundtrack to their lives, all as his Wham! hit Last Christmas sits in the top 10 of the charts, 33 years after its release. 

“When we lost George the pavement outside the house was covered in flowers, it was like Princess Diana all over again,” recalls Tonia Katsantonis who, along with a small group of dedicated women, has taken it upon herself to tend to the garden three times a week for the past year. 

“It began when George’s family decided to bring all the flowers from outside the house into the garden. 

“Because the flowers were placed here, everyone thought, ‘ if we want to leave something, we’ll leave it in the garden’.”

The memorial has been the subject of much controversy over the past few days, after a local conservation society complained it looked a “mess”. The fans had had their moment, they said, but now it should be cleared away. “One wonders what George Michael would think of it all outside the beautiful home that he looked after so well,” said Susan Rose, chair of the Highgate Conservation Area advisory committee. “Jamie Oliver and Jude Law live locally. I can’t imagine they are overly happy about it all.” 

The committee, made up of local residents, has said it would not be adverse to a more permanent memorial like a statue - something George’s fans and family alike have vehemently protested against.

For Tonia, 42, and her fellow fans, the thought of tearing this shabbily beautiful place down is unbearable. “People around the world send us things to place here for them,” says the mum-of-two, who has given up much of her job at the family car sales business over the past year to maintain the memorial.

“There’s a candle holder over there from India, those hearts on the railings come from Malaysia. There are pictures from Italy. I’ve got an American section which a fan wanted to start up over there. 

“Fans that are based abroad send me their tributes to lay here for them. So when they can’t physically come to the garden, they’ll send them to my personal address.”

Already today, someone has come early on the way to work to lay a little guitar and a picture next to one of the shrines which line the railings. “People want to know that they’ve left a bit of themselves here,” says Helen Feichtinger, 46, who also gives up much of her spare time to keep the flowers fresh and the candles lit. “I don’t think you can underestimate that.”

The garden has come to be about more than trinkets and tributes. Between them, these women have raised around ￡20,000 in the past year for charities which were close to George’s heart. Since his death, stories of his dedication to charitable causes have inspired his fans to carry on his good work. They have heard how he worked at a homeless shelter, paid ￡1.67m for John Lennon’s piano and donated it to the Beatles Story museum so it could stay in Liverpool, and gave a woman he had seen on Deal or No Deal ￡9,000 so that she could have IVF (she has since given birth to a little boy called Seth). 

“The fact that he never wanted people to know it was from him just shows the kind of man he was,” says Tonia. “Whoever asked George for help would receive it. He did a private concert for the nurses who looked after his mum to say thank you. 

“So this year we’ve done a charity walk for the Rainbow Trust, a Macmillan coffee morning which raised ￡1,300 in two hours, we’ve sold t shirts with our slogan ‘If love could have saved you you would have lived forever’ on them.”

A particularly special moment this year, Tonia tells me, was seeing the garden filled with George’s fans on his birthday in June, all wearing their charity t shirts. “The garden looked breathtaking, the grass was beautiful, there wasn’t one candle out of place, there was music playing. Everyone was happy. Sad, of course, but happy together.”

So what do the neighbours really think? Michael’s cousin Alex Georgiou, who has been living in the house for the past year and looking after the singer’s beloved labrador, Abby, says most residents don’t mind a bit, describing the few that have complained as “two faced”. “Shame on them,” he said this week.

“George would think it was laughable and he would probably think there is so many more important issues going on in the world to worry about,” he added. “[He] was so generous and charitable and I can’t believe they would not give him more respect, I take that personally.”

Fans and family feel George would have been embarrassed by the building of a statue. Instead, Tonia and Helen say would like to see a George Michael Foundation set up to continue his charitable work. 

“I was here last night and I was talking to Alex - he often comes out and says hello and gives us a cup of coffee and tells us to get home if it’s cold - and he asked what I thought we should do. 

“I said it would be really lovely to have it paved and have some sort of water feature. George supported children’s charities, so maybe have a children’s play area.”

They accept that it has all got a bit muddy, and they never could have anticipated still being here a year later. But people continue to come in droves to see it, and “the hotels near here are already booked out next June on the 24th and 25th [his birthday],” Helen says.

Both Tonia and Helen are among the fans who “stuck with him for 30 years” through the innumerable ups and downs of his often difficult life, and they are not about to desert him now.”

“He said once: ‘I know it’s never been easy being a George Michael fan’,” Tonia adds. “But it was the easiest thing in the world. I’m so proud of him and everything that has happened since he died. That loyalty is stronger than ever.”