Paddington Bears Statues Start to be unveiled across the UK

The first of 23 Paddington Bears sculpture forming part of a trail across the UK was unveiled on Monday at Land's End, as part of the Paddington Visits trail.

The trail will see statues of the Peruvian bear appearing on benches in cities, towns and beauty spots across the UK and Ireland in October, including a bench in Penrith.

In each he is wearing his signature red hat and blue duffle coat, and has a marmalade sandwich in his paws to celebrate the upcoming StudioCanal film, Paddington in Peru.

Paddington was brought to life by novelist Michael Bond in 1958 and his stories have since been adapted for TV and film, and spawned a lot of merchandise.

Bond was born in January 1926 in Newbury and as part of the trail across the UK a statue of Paddington Bear was unveiled in Michael Bond’s hometown on Wednesday.

Statues have also been unvailed over the last 24 hours in York, Sunderland, Reading, Cardiff, London.