\n Paddington was first unveiled at Norwich Cathedral on February 12, 2025, after Norwich became the 24th place in the country to get a\u00a0statue of the much-loved Bear.\n<\/p>\n
\n For the past year, he has been\u00a0greeting people on a bench in the grounds of Norwich Cathedral.\n<\/p>\n
\n Norwich Cathedral choristers Theo Holden, left, and Luca Ficarra Soards, sit with Paddington Bear (Image: Denise Bradley)\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokeswoman for Norwich BID said more than 100,000 people have visited the statue in that time.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n She added: “Whether you’re a regular or just passing through, thanks for making our Paddington part of your journey this past year.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The Paddington Bench is a place where people feel comfortable visiting on their own.\n<\/p>\n
\n “He really has brought a lot of joy, and the location he is in suits him so well- a place of peace and contemplation.”\n<\/p>\n
\n In a survey last February half-term, 70pc of people said that they travelled more than 10 miles to see Paddington.\n<\/p>\n
\n Norwich Cathedral choristers and the Dean, the Very Rev Andrew Braddock, sit with Paddington Bear. From left, Moli Li, Zoe Asamoah, Theo Holden, and Luca Ficarra Soards (Image: Denise Bradley)\n<\/p>\n
\n The attraction, since then, has only grown with the statue even making an appearance in selfies with emergency service crews.\n<\/p>\n
\n Very Revd Dr Andrew Braddock, the Dean of Norwich, also described the city landmark as \u201cthe perfect setting\u201d for the bench.\n<\/p>\n
\n He added that “Paddington\u2019s message of kindness and curiosity resonates beautifully with the Cathedral\u2019s own spirit of welcome”.\n<\/p>\n
\n Last year, Laura Palmer, who is a teacher at Cringleford C.E.V.A. Primary School, was asked to unveil the statue after pupils in her class all wrote to StudioCanal with reasons why Paddington should come to Norwich.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “One of the children wrote that lonely people can go and sit with Paddington for company,” she said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n “Another pointed out that Paddington is a refugee, and there are many refugees living here looking to make Norwich their home.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paddington was first unveiled at Norwich Cathedral on February 12, 2025, after Norwich became the 24th place in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-425180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}