Friendly neighborhood butcher has same name as Tom Holland

By Emily Phillips

A butcher who shares the same name as an A-list actor says he gets voicemails from him to “come to birthday parties”.

Tom Holland, 24, set up his own business, The Real Tom Holland Butchers, in November 2024.

After undertaking an apprenticeship in 2020, he also learned specific skills through watching YouTube videos on different cutting techniques.

Now, Tom works from a purpose-built room at his parents Neil, 53 and Gill, 53 house and sells his products at local businesses doing pop-ups.

He also decided to use the name The Real Tom Holland Butchers to avoid confusion with Spider-Man star Tom Holland, 29.

Butcher Tom, from Devon, said: “I get quite a few jokes [about having the same name as the actor], people know it’s not him obviously.

“I have plenty of voicemails from people asking me to come to birthday parties or to their house.

“A few of them will say, ‘You’re taller than I expected’.

“I’d quite happily cook him a steak or a burger or something on the BBQ, no worries”.

Tom undertook qualifications to set up his own business along his apprenticeship, including hygiene and knife certificates, and took to YouTube to find out even more about the job.

He said: “There was a butcher around the corner when we moved to Devon in lockdown wanting an apprentice and I fell in love with it.

“When you start looking through YouTube, you’re recommended things and I was Googling cuts not taught at the time.

“There are lots of different ways of cutting things, for example, the UK cuts things differently to America and some people in the north cut differently to people in the south.

“I was interested in the US version as they seem to do things differently, I kind of wanted to learn that way of doing things.

“I watched The Bearded Butchers in Ohio”.

The connection to superhero actor Tom Holland has even influenced the name of his business.

He said, “In school, it was a very big thing with Tom Holland as Spider-Man.

“A lot of my mates took the mickey out of me as I’m not the real Tom Holland.

“I decided not to confuse things and put myself as ‘The Real’ Tom Holland, not Spider-Man”.