A new statue of a beloved bear has been unveiled in Cardiff. On Monday, October 7, a painted statue of Paddington Bear was revealed in St John’s Gardens near the St David’s shopping centre in the Welsh capital. The iconic bear statue was seen sporting his signature red hat, blue duffle coat and the all-important marmalade sandwich in his paw.
Cardiff fans could step into Mr Gruber’s shoes, sit with the bear for a spot of tea, some sandwiches and even write a postcard to Aunt Lucy. Identical statues have been unveiled all over the UK and Ireland, including in Liverpool, Birmingham, County Mayo and London Paddington as part of the Paddington Visits campaign. It comes ahead of the highly-anticipated film, “Paddington in Peru,” which is set to be shown in cinemas this November.
The live action film will see the loveable bear, who is voiced by English actor Ben Whishaw, take his adopted family – the Browns – to his homeland of Peru to visit his Aunt Lucy. However, the group have to search for Lucy and end up travelling the Amazonian rainforest and the Peruvian mountains to find her.
The brains behind the bear was the late writer Michael Bond, who delighted readers all over the world with his stories about Paddington for over 65 years. HarperCollins Children’s books have published Paddington’s adventures continuously since October 1958 when, as William Collins, they first introduced “A Bear Called Paddington” to the world.
Since then, Paddington’s adventures have been adapted several times for television and at the end of 2014 Paddington made his debut on the big screen, a further film – “Paddington 2” – followed in 2017 with a third now set to be released in cinemas on November 8. The unveiling of the statue comes ahead of the new film, “Paddington in Peru,” which will be shown in cinemas this November.