The Paddington Project

Buckingham Palace, The Royal Parks and Barnardo’s children’s charity are pleased to announce that over 1,000 Paddingtons and teddy bears left in tribute to Queen Elizabeth outside Royal Residences in London and Windsor have been donated to Barnardo’s children’s services.

After being well looked after at Buckingham Palace, Clarence House and in the Royal Parks nursery located in Hyde Park, The Queen Consort has delivered the bears to Barnardo's nursery in Bow. In 2016, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth passed the patronage of Barnardo’s to the then Duchess of Cornwall.

Her Majesty attended special teddy bears picnic, where she joined children supported by Bow Nursery and Barnardo’s staff for the picnic, alongside key characters from the world of Paddington. Paddington film cast members Hugh Bonneville and Madeleine Harris, who play Mr Brown and Judy Brown respectively, and Paddington author Michael Bond’s daughter Karen Jankel, for whom the original stories were written, all came together for marmalade sandwiches on the day. 

The teddy bears were all professionally cleaned ahead of the delivery. Those presented by Her Majesty will remain with children at the Bow Nursery, while others will be distributed to children supported by Barnardo’s across the country.

Those involved in the project hope the teddy bears will be much loved for many years to come by children supported by Barnardo’s, whilst understanding the story behind the bears and how they came to be donated.

The Paddington Project

Buckingham Palace, The Royal Parks and Barnardo’s children’s charity announced on 18th October that over 1,000 Paddingtons and teddy bears left in tribute to Queen Elizabeth outside Royal Residences in London and Windsor would be donated to Barnardo’s children’s services. The teddy bears were all professionally cleaned before being delivered and were well looked after at Buckingham Palace and Clarence House before arriving at their new homes.

To mark the announcement of the donation, a new photograph was released in October of The Queen Consort with some of the hundreds of Paddingtons and teddy bears that are being gifted to the children’s charity. The photograph was taken in the Morning Room at Clarence House on Thursday 13th October 2022, the 64th anniversary of the publication of the first Paddington bear book.

Thousands of tributes – from flowers to teddy bears – were left outside Royal Residences in London and Windsor following Queen Elizabeth’s death on Thursday 8th September. In central London, many were left at the two official tributes areas in The Green Park and Hyde Park.

Later in September, The Royal Parks charity, with the help of Shire horses and almost 200 volunteers, began sensitively clearing the tribute gardens. The teddy bears collected during this process have joined those left as tributes on the Long Walk outside Windsor Castle in being donated to Barnardo’s children’s services.

Barnardo’s children’s charity

Last year more than 382,000 children, young people, parents and carers were supported by Barnardo’s through more than 790 services and partnerships across the UK, such as young carers, care leavers, foster carers and adoptive parents, training and skills or parenting classes. Barnardo’s works to transform the lives of the UK’s most vulnerable children and every year the charity helps thousands of families to build a better future. Visit www.barnardos.org.uk to find out more.  

Barnardo’s Bow Nursery

Bow Nursery is based in the London borough of Tower Hamlets and provides childcare provision and nursery education to children aged between three months and five years. The nursery offers 15 hours free childcare a week to all three and four-year-olds and 15 hours free childcare a week for two-year-olds from eligible families. The nursery also offers the Extended Entitlement 30hour Funding, commonly known as 30 hours free childcare, to eligible families.