© 2019 Visiting London Guide.com – Photograph by Alan Kean
London railway stations have featured in many books over the years, however in the Paddington Bear books, our cuddly hero is named after Paddington Station. The station plays a very important role in the books because it is within the station where he was first found by Mr. and Mrs. Brown when he arrives in London from Peru and the reason he got his name.
© 2019 Visiting London Guide.com – Photograph by Alan Kean
To commemorate this relationship, there is a life-sized bronze statue of Paddington in the station which was designed by the sculptor Marcus Cornish. The statue was unveiled by the Paddington Bear series author Michael Bond in 2000.
© 2019 Visiting London Guide.com – Photograph by Alan Kean
Michael Bond was working as a television cameraman for the BBC that he first came up with the idea for Paddington. He bought a small toy bear for his wife and named it Paddington because they were living near Paddington Station at the time. He began to write some stories about the bear and eventually his very first book “A Bear Called Paddington” was accepted by a publisher and published in 1958. Since the first book, Paddington books have sold more than thirty-five million copies worldwide and have been translated into over forty different languages.
© 2019 Visiting London Guide.com – Photograph by Alan Kean
Michael Bond lived in London, not far from Paddington Station where he continued to write until shortly before he died in 2017, aged 91.
© 2019 Visiting London Guide.com – Photograph by Alan Kean
In the books, we found out that Paddington originally came from Peru where he was brought up by his Aunt Lucy. When Aunt Lucy went to live in the Home for Retired Bears in Lima, she decided to send him to England to live. He was found by the Browns sitting on a small suitcase near the lost property office wearing a hat with a label round his neck with the words “Please Look After This Bear. Thank You.” Paddington is famous for his love of marmalade and especially marmalade sandwiches.
© 2019 Visiting London Guide.com – Photograph by Alan Kean
The sculpture recreates this scene, with Paddington sitting under a large clock with his suitcase waiting to be rescued.
© 2019 Visiting London Guide.com – Photograph by Alan Kean
Paddington has also achieved fame on television and more recently films, one strange but true fact is that the very first Paddington bear soft toy was designed in the UK by Shirley Clarkson who just happens to be the mother of TV personality Jeremy Clarkson. Now Paddington has his own shop on Paddington Station.
© 2019 Visiting London Guide.com – Photograph by Alan Kean
Nearby the statue is a colourful Paddington bench and plaque marking the making of the first Paddington film in 2013 and mentions that some of the scenes were filmed in the station.
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