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| The Bear of London |
At Covent
Garden I handed over from the Year of the Bus Westminster Trail to
the Paddington Christmas Trail. This was
set up less formally than the bus trail and almost immediately I had some
trouble finding the elusive bears. There
were two housed at Covent Garden but I didn’t find
it for some time as it was largely hidden by all the Christmas shopping crowds. The other was more prominent and attracting a
good deal of attention from passing kids as it was stationed outside the Royal
Opera House.
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| Leicester Square Bear |
Having started the trail I headed
off towards Leicester Square
via Charing Cross and Trafalgar Square. I found the next Paddington not too far from
where I had seen one of the buses. While
I shaped up to take a picture I was approached by a triumphalist ‘spotter’ who
had ticked this one off as the last one he needed to find. Just to rub it in he told me that he had also
seen all the buses too. Nothing like an
encounter like that to make your own efforts seem rather worthless…
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| Paddington the Explorer |
Leicester Square proved to be
rather frustrating as the Paddington stationed there was in the middle of the
Square, which was locked off until later in the day because the funfair in the
green area was not yet open to the public.
I had to view the Paddington from afar (called Blush and sponsored by
Nicole Kidman) and make do with that. I
did have more luck with the one along the road at Picadilly Circus, which was
Paddington the Explorer and a rather more expected design than the rainbow
affair I had seen earlier.
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| Christmas Arcade |
By now lunchtime was upon us and
the crowds were really building up. I
struggled to make very good speed down Picadilly and was relieved when I was
able to disappear into the same shopping arcade that we had walked up during
the London 2012 mascot trails. It looked
extremely good decked out in Christmas decorations but I didn’t like to look at
the prices in the shops as I imagine they were rather eye-watering.
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| Thread Bear |
The next bear wasn’t too easy to
find – I think I need to rely less on maps for some of these trails and think
about the Apps that go with these trails.
They seem to work for people rather better, although I am a bit of a
luddite when it comes to mobile technology.
Thread Bear was a rather fun design though – looked like it was based on
cross stitch. I was rather pleased to
see that the next bear was in Berkeley
Square – this really is a smashing part of London. The gardens in the middle seem to be very
serene and the buildings all around look so grand. Somehow the square seemed more regal in the
winter without all the leaves on the trees that we had seen on our last visit
back in 2012. The Paddington here stood
proudly on the grille of a Rolls Royce. It seemed rather upstaged though by the astonishing piece of art installed further down the square - the fabulously colourful 'The Sun' by Dale Chihuly.
It was about this point that I
realised that this was quite a long trail, especially as the distances between
Paddingtons was quite long. As I headed
towards Bond Street
I cross the substantial works of Crossrail, the massive new engineering project
that will link the rail network east to west across London.
It made me wonder how much of the substructure of London is devoid of any works whatsoever? Underneath the city must be a honeycomb of
tunnels and engineering features almost as dense as what you find at ground
level. It must be enormously complicated
finding clear paths for the tunnels to run.
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| Berkeley Square |
Any notion that I had seen busy London thus far was soon
scotched when I entered Oxford
Street.
This was a teeming mass of humanity, all frantically trying to get their
Christmas presents and shopping arranged.
Only one more day remained after this one and I could sense the feeling
of tension in the air. It seemed
slightly ludicrous that I was here looking for Paddington Bear sculptures, but
I was rather caught up in the atmosphere.
I especially enjoyed the window displays of Selfridges – they were all
especially festive and original. Despite
the crowds sights like these made me think it was worthwhile coming to the
Capital for a Christmas walk. I spotted
A gold Paddington in the window among a display of what else, marmalade!
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| The Sun |
Further along Oxford Street were two other bears, one
called Sparkles and another called Bear Humbug, sponsored by Ant and Dec no
less. The latter was stationed by a very
jaunty steel band belting out ‘Little Donkey’ Caribbean
style – it was all slightly odd but thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless. I chucked some change in the tin after
waiting for them to finish. They weren’t
the only musicians along the street, there were plenty of others at respectful
distances from each other and all doing Christmas singing in various
styles. The black gospel choir outside Bond Street station
were my other favourites.
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| Oxford Street |
Just past Oxford Circus and I was
able to leave the madness of Oxford
Street behind, disappearing down the back streets
of Soho.
I passed by the London Palladium – funnily enough that is the first time
I have ever done that! Just along from
there was Parka Paddington, a rather classic looking design that seemed to be
ignored by all who passed by. Seems strange
that some commanded a huge amount of attention while others didn’t.
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| Golden Bear |
My way back to Picadilly Circus
took me through Carnaby Street,
still full of the sorts of shops that made this street famous in the 1960s
although I suspect these days less trendy and more ruthlessly designed to
remove money from the pocket. The
atmosphere in Carnaby Street
seemed a lot less intense than back at Oxford Street and I liked it for that
reason alone. The Christmas decorations
were rather eye-catching too as the street was decorated with hundreds of
lightbulbs hanging down across the street.
I was rather disappointed that I wouldn’t get to see them lit up…
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| Bear Humbug |
The final Paddington on this
trail was parked along a side street near Picadilly Circus and depicted a scene
from the Amazon. The Bear was called
Bearodiversity – a rather appropriate title I thought. Now back at Picadilly Circus I decided to
head to another part of London
for the next Paddington Bear Trail around Paddington station itself – seemed an
appropriate thing to do and got me away from all the crowds that I had
experienced on this walk.
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| Carnaby Street |
I did find the Paddington Bear
mascots rather more difficult to find than the buses – the trail suffered from
not being properly mapped and in that respect it was like the Gromit and Clyde
trails that we had recently followed in Bristol
and Glasgow. I have to say that these trails are far
better when properly arranged and take in the best aspects of the cities in
which they are based. The Paddington
Trail didn’t seem particularly well devised I have to say…
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| Bearodiversity |
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