Having found the 50 book benches across London over the summer, we’d intended to do the same with the Paddington Bear statues once they appeared but somehow we never managed to make the trip into London to see them until the very last day that they were there.
Knowing that it would be impossible to find all 50 in the time we had, we opted to find the eight bears around the Paddington station area as this was the shortest of the suggested trails. We caught the tube to Warwick Avenue station and headed towards Little Venice. It was a beautiful sunny, albeit very cold, day and Jessica enjoyed seeing the narrowboats moored along the canal as we walked along on our bear hunt. Sophie had fallen asleep on the train and was having a lovely snooze in the buggy.
Our first bear – Love Paddington x – was located in Rembrandt Gardens, at the junction of the Grand Union and Regents canals. We found five more bears as we walked along the canal to the Paddington Basin – Texting Paddington, The Mayor of Paddington, Brick Bear, Bearing Up and Futuristic Robot Bear.
Next stop was Paddington station to see the statue of the original Paddington Bear before heading to Norfolk Square to find the final bear on this part of the trail – Paddingtonscape.
Sophie woke up at this point so we stopped to have some lunch before deciding to continue the trail and head towards the West End and see how many more bears we could find. Jessica was getting tired and wanted to ride in the buggy so my new Tula toddler carrier was put to good use carrying Sophie as we headed down to Kensington Gardens where we found the Paws Engage bear. We then took the tube to Bond Street where we found the Sparkles bear followed by Bear Humbug a little further down Oxford Street.
Next stop was Berkeley Square Gardens where we found The Spirit of Paddington followed by Thread Bear along New Bond Street which looked very pretty with its Christmas lights.
It was starting to get dark by this point as we headed to Piccadilly Circus in the hopes of finding Paddington the Explorer only to find that this statue had been taken away half an hour earlier (although we did manage to find one of the bus sculptures there instead!). We suspected that the other nearby statues would also be disappearing and so decided to end our bear hunt having managed to find 13 bears in total. We finished off our day with a walk down to Trafalgar Square to see the Christmas tree before heading home with two tired but happy girls who had enjoyed their day out in the open air.
What a fabulous activity! My littles would love this. I’d seen photos from other people too but wasn’t too sure what it was all about – now I get it! I’ll have to put it on our list of things to do x
Thanks Kiran – unfortunately the bears have now gone but I suspect there will be more themed sculptures coming up and the buses are there for a while yet x
I love the look of the Paddington Bear trail, such a great idea and a wonderful way to do a tour of the city too. Looks like you did really well spotting them and I love the photos along the way. thanks you for sharing with me on Country Kids.
Thank you – love things like this for helping explore areas of London, we had such a great time. Lovely to link up to Country Kids again 🙂
You did well to find 13 before they started disappearing 🙂 Another great trail to see London by!
Thanks Sara – glad we managed to see some of them before they went! 🙂
What a great way to inspire kids to tour and walk around London!
It’s brilliant – I love things like this for getting to explore different areas of London 🙂
Fabulous Louise, would love to post this. Do get in touch if you are happy for me to. I adore all your photographs. I wish we had been able to go and see the Paddington bears, my three love the film! #countrykids
Thank you – have messaged you and would love you to share. Glad you like the photos – it helped that it was such a beautiful day weather-wise 🙂
I loved your book benches hunt post and it is so great to see something similar being done with Paddington. They are such a great idea – wish there were some closer to me though.
Gorgeous photos too 🙂
Thank you – it’s such a shame there aren’t more things like this around the country. We’ve had such fun hunting for the benches and Paddingtons, glad you liked the photos 🙂
Wow I love this Louise! I’d never heard of the bear trail but I love Paddington and it looks like a fab way to take in lots of the sights of London with the children. I’m still nervous about taking the kids into Central London – EJ has a habit of running off and has no road sense whatsoever (obv being two!) and I can imagine losing him in crowds! I hope they do something like this again though so when the boys are older we can have our own bear hunt! X #countrykids
Thanks Sam – it was a great way to explore. I get nervous taking the girls into London on my own – I won’t use escalators these days after nearly losing my balance with the buggy on one going down but hubby is very confident with taking the buggy on them and people do help with stairs. I’m not a big fan of crowded places either but it’s very do-able with hubby there too x
I’m so glad you shared all these lovely pictures of your Paddington hunt. it looks like so much fun and some great paddington’s to find too 🙂
Thank you – we enjoyed it 🙂
I love all the bear pictures, Lil G loves Paddington but sadly with being so far from London we just couldn’t make the journey. Looks like a super day #CountryKids
Thank you – we had a lot of fun 🙂
I love this type of trail. We’ve done two in the past: Lions in Bath and Rhinos in Southampton. I get really excited to see what the next design is. Tin Box Tot wasn’t around for the Lions and was a tiny baby when we visited the Rhinos – yes, we went for me – so I can’t wait to show her something like this. The Paddingtons totally passed me by! #countrykids
I think we go more for us too as the girls are still a bit young to appreciate it but it’s a good way of getting out and about exploring with them 🙂
This looks like so much fun & I am slightly jealous, all the best things just happen in London! So glad to have found your blog through #countrykids & am off to share it on fb & Twitter. Kierna
Thank you – I agree that it is a shame that a lot of things are so London-centric
They are gorgeous. We’ve done a few of the themed trails. Just love the creativity of the artists that paint them. I try and imagine what I would do with a blank version. I bet you walked further than you thought.
We did walk quite a way! I love how they are all so very different 🙂
What a fantastic bear hunt!! I would love to do this! 🙂
It was great fun – it’s a shame that they’ve gone now though.
OMG that’s a dedication! I love those statues! We haven’t seen the movie but I heard it good and well Paddington is an icon. Thanks for sharing your trip =) #countrykids
Thank you – we haven’t seen the movie either but loved seeing the statues 🙂
This sounds like great fun! I didn’t realise you could bear hunt in London 🙂 #countrykids
It was fab – we had a great time 🙂
How lovely! You guys did it! My husband mentioned this when we were planning our day-trip to London. But we just didn’t have the time. Looks really lovely and fun. Love the photos 🙂 #countrykids.
Thank you – we had a great time 🙂
This looks so much fun, we did something in Bournemouth a few summers ago. There were lion’s dotted around the town and surrounding area, it was good fun! looks like you all had a fun time 🙂 #countrykids
Thank you – we enjoyed it! 🙂
What an amazing thing to do! My children would have loved this, what a shame we never got to it in time! x
Thank you – it’s a shame they weren’t around for longer.
So far we’ve not been to see any of them, although I’d have loved to. It’s a shame they didn’t stay for longer, although the buses look pretty cool. Will have to look those up.
Looks like you covered some ground, and had a nice walk.
Thank you – we enjoyed our walk. Hope you manage to get to see some of the buses 🙂
It sounds like you had a great time finding all the bears. I haven’t been brave enough to take both Children to London but your photos really make me miss it x
It was fun – London with little ones can be a challenge though! x
Honestly Louise you and your family are amazing!!! How do you find the time?? I looked up the gold postboxes and cannot believe you have seen every single one!!!! I am going to go look at the book benches in a sec and see if it is something we could try!! x
Lol, thanks Katy – we haven’t quite seen every one – still have 1 Olympic one left and 13 Paralympic ones left to do but hoping to see those this year. Book benches have sadly ended now but there are bus sculptures around instead x
What a lovely day, and busy! Fab that you managed to see so many of the statues! Loving your hat by the way too 🙂 xx #countrykids
Thank you – the hat was a Christmas present from my hubby and is lovely and warm 🙂
Such a fab bear hunt. They were there when we visited in November, and we were thinking of doing them, but time ran away from us. They look really good, and sounds like a lovely day out. #countrykids x
Thanks Stacey – we had a lovely day 🙂
Wow you did well – that’s a lot of bears, and aren’t they all gorgeous!
Thank you – it was lovely to get to see so many 🙂
You did so well! I wish we had done it. Shame they have gone now. We loved that film, it is fab.
Thank you – it is a shame they weren’t around longer. We’ve yet to see the film, glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Wow this looks amazing! What a fabulous idea!!! My daughter would have loved this…a bit disappointed they have removed them now! Will definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for more in the future! What a wonderful bear hunt! x
Thank you – it was a lovely way to spend a day. Shame they weren’t around for longer though.
What a fab thing to do with little ones- I know my big girl Mads would love doing this. x
Thank you – it was a lovely way to spend the day 🙂