Paddington!

Paddington is special to me in 2 ways. Firstly they were my favourite books when I was a child, and I read them over and over. There was something lovely about the character - and the way he was drawn by Peggy Fortnum (in the original books). He tried to do things right, but he often misunderstood and got into scrapes. Something I really identified with. The recent two films where he was voiced by Ben Whishaw have been fabulous too
Also Paddington station has been important for most of my life. I used to go down to Paignton to stay with my aunt there from about the age of ten. Then my mum and Dad moved down to near Brixham when I was 18, leaving me in London (I had left home! they didn’t just leave me behind). Then my life started to be connected with Bristol from 1985, so that too meant train journeys from Paddington. After I moved to Bristol in 1989, Paddington became a lovely welcome back to London for me - as London still feels like my real home deep down. Always busy, but always it feels good to be back at this station
This morning I travelled back home from here, pausing on Platform 1 to get a blip of this lovely little statue - made by sculptor Marcus Cornish in 2000. It’s situated under the clock on platform 1 which is where he first meets the Brown family, who go on to adopt him. Of course there’s also the subtext of being kind and welcoming to migrants:)