Bookery Days Out: The Paddington Paw Trail in London

Whether it's Harry Potter World at Warner Bros Studio, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Sherlock Holmes Museum or one of the countless book-inspired theatre shows at the West End, London is THE place to be for bookery things to do. But as fun as these things are, they don't come for free and when you factor in the cost of travelling to the capital, accommodation and meals, you may not fancy shelling out money for lots of activities.

As hubby has to travel to London quite often for work, I'm always on the look out for cheap/free stuff to do there for when the kids and I decide to tag along; we recently discovered this amazing Paddington trail that takes you around one of the busiest stations in the country, combining a much-loved literary figure with another thing that my, and I'm sure most, children love - different forms of transport!

Apart from the odd glimpse of a clip here and there, Ketchup and Mustard haven't watched either of the Paddington movies; I wanted them to get to know the iconic bear through Michael Bond's beautifully written books first and so, we have slowly been making our way through the collection whilst also listening to some fantastic Paddington audio books which we found at the library. When the children found out that the station where Paddington was discovered and subsequently went on to be named after, really exists they asked if we could visit on our next visit to London; cue a bit of research on my part to see if there was anything apart from trainspotting we could do at the station and voila... I discovered this trail!

The current Paddington Paw Trail is actually the remnant of a larger one which ran in 2014 and involved 50 statues of Paddington being placed around London to celebrate the launch of the first movie. The sculptures were designed by celebrities like Emma Watson, Julie Walters, David Beckham and Stephen Fry, and were later sold at auction to raise money for charity.

The present-day trail consists of only four of these ​​statues which are dotted in and around Paddington station so I wasn't anticipating it to be anything too great but as long as it was good enough to satisfy Ketchup and Mustard's curiosity of the station and maybe take up an hour or so of our morning, I'd be happy...

We were staying in a hotel near the Limehouse DLR station and took the train to Bank, and then the Central line tube to Lancaster Gate, from where it was a short walk to Paddington. Ketchup and Mustard instantly loved the hustle and bustle of this busy station: announcements on the tannoy, whistles blowing, people rushing around, trains thundering in and out...

The place to begin the trail is the Paddington store inside 'The Lawn' which is a section of the station filled with cafes, restaurants and shops. I love literary-themed shops and so will write a separate post about the Paddington store. Nestled amongst the trinkets you will find the first sculpture of Paddington with free maps of the trail. Designed by none other than Michael Bond himself, this statue shows Paddington as most of us will know him, wearing his trademark blue toggled coat and red hat.I would recommend you take a look around the store before embarking on the trail as there are a lot of features and exhibitions on the bear to get you and your young ones in the mood. It is also worth speaking to the staff there; the assistant on duty on the day we visited was very friendly and helpful, and told us about the trail and where we could find the other statues.

After a lengthy browse in the shop, we went in search of the next sculpture; normally situated on the canal, "Paddingtonscape" has been moved into the nearby Hilton hotel to protect him from the elements during the winter months. Paddingtonscape is a creation of London-based illustrator Hannah Warren and features the canals and narrow boats of Little Venice, located behind Paddington train station.

The hotel can be accessed through the station itself via a lift. I must admit, I did question the decision to place one of the statues here, as although it gave us a few minutes in the very charming lobby area of the grand Hilton London Paddington, I was conscious of hanging around too long as there were Hilton customers/visitors having drinks and meetings there and the children were becoming super-giddy around the bear!

Luckily there was no need to watch the noise levels for the next statue we went to look for as it was located on Platform One of the​​ station. We had a lot of fun hunting for this one, stopping along the way to marvel at some fine looking trains and to observe the station in action. We finally spotted Paddington beneath the station clock and with squeals of delight, Ketchup and Mustard ran ahead to see him up close.

This was the bronze sculpture of Paddington created by British artist Marcus Cornish and depicts the bear as he is found by the Brown's, seated on his suitcase. Unlike the other statues in the trail, this one has been around much longer, having been unveiled at the station in 2000 by Michael Bond himself.

There are plenty of photo opportunities on Platform One with the adorable Paddington Bear Book Bench which was designed by artist Michelle Heron as part of another trail which also ran in 2014. Above the bench is the green plaque, unveiled by Michael Bond's daughter Karen Jankel, marking the spot where scenes from the first movie were shot.

For the final sculpture, the trail took us to the windy outdoors along Paddington Basin. Lined with restaurants, cafes and with boats aplenty this canal has a wonderfully lively atmosphere so could be a good place to stop for a bite to eat. Although my stomach was grumbling at this point, Ketchup and Mustard were too busy admiring the boats and searching for Paddington to heed my suggestion of an early lunch! We walked along, pointing out the different boats, watching the ducks and suddenly there were loud cheers, whoops and punches in the air as their eyes landed on the final statue!

Named "Bearing Up" this sculpture of Paddington was designed by construction company Taylor Wimpey, and is depicted in a blue velvety felt to represent the company's interior design for families.

Although not part of the Paddington Paw Trail, the assistant in the store had told us about another Paddington tribute nearby that we decided to go in search of too; at the end of Paddington Basin, there is a footbridge going across the canal which leads to an underground path. Follow this and you come out into St Mary's Square where you will find an installation of Michael Bond holding Paddington.

If you're after something free to do in London then most definitely add this trail to your list. As well as details of where to find the Paddington sculptures, the map offers information on various "Adventures" you can go on around London which incorporate places featured in the films. I think once we've completed the books and seen the movies, I'll consider doing the trail again and this time try one of the Adventures too.

As I mentioned previously, I didn't have high expectations of the trail beforehand given that it only involved finding four sculptures, and nor did I anticipate it taking up longer than an hour. However, I was pleasantly surprised and the kids and I ended up having such a fun-filled few hours. We had to dash off straight after for our next bookery adventure (blog post coming soon!) but it would have been nice to end the trail with lunch in one of the many restaurants and cafes near the station.

As well as the bookery aspect, I loved the fact that we encountered so many different modes of transport in a single morning...searching for statues of a literary icon in buzzing surroundings with a DLR, a tube, a few trains and a handful of canal boats chucked in...what's not to love?

#Paddington #London #Literarytrails