November 02, 2022

30th Birthday of The Bear Garden - 2nd November 2022

So how did this all start?
I graduated from Aberystwyth University in June 1992 having studied German and French. On leaving I had no idea what career I wanted to pursue. I turned down a couple of jobs in London, as I didn’t fancy commuting. But then fate intervened!
About this time, it happened to by my mum’s birthday. We’d had a conversation a few weeks previously about how she had only ever had a doll as a child; never a teddy bear! So, a short while later I found myself in a well-known London toy shop buying her a teddy bear. This set me to thinking that I had not been able to find a teddy bear in my hometown of Guildford. And thus, the idea of The Bear Garden was born. I took the £2,000 that I had inherited from my great aunt and opened The Bear Garden on 2nd November 1992.

So, it is now 2022 and 30 years have passed in what seems like the blink of an eye! It is hard to believe when I look back and think that I was a young man with nothing more than the inkling that the idea of opening a teddy bear shop would work. I would like to thank the companies that I contacted for placing faith in me all those years ago.

But of course, we would be nowhere without our dedicated band of collectors and general lovers of quality soft toys. So, to those of you who are reading this and you fall into that category: Thank you so much!

I look forward to the years ahead!
Best wishes,
Andrew