It was a much-loved teddy, given pride of place in the late Queen’s private rooms.
And now the public can see ‘Haddington’ bear as the Palace of Holyroodhouse opens her rooms to fee-paying visitors for the first time.
To mark the centenary of her birth, the tour gives new insight into Queen Elizabeth’s private life, including some of her personal objects such as her Scottish bear, named after the world-famous Paddington Bear.
She was gifted Haddington sometime around the millennium, and he was one of the few personal objects she liked to be displayed at the Edinburgh palace.
Television viewers will remember the Queen having tea with Paddington in a heartwarming sketch performed as part of her Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Palace curator Emma Stead said: ‘The Queen was given him as a gift and after that she asked that whenever she arrived here, he be placed in that particular position on the sofa awaiting her arrival. She had a few personal objects that she liked to be placed quite precisely.
‘Another one is the pin cushion just to the left of the fireplace, which was presented to her when she attended the Commonwealth Games in 1986 in Edinburgh, and it has all the badges of the represented countries who took part.’
Learning curator Dr Richard Williams said colleagues in Windsor, if tasked with redecorating the private quarters, took photos of everything so they could be put back in the exact same spots.
The Queen and Paddington at Buckingham Palace in 2022
Haddington on the sofa in the late Queen’s sitting room at the Palace of Holyroodhouse
The monarch’s official residence in Scotland opened the private rooms, used by Her Majesty and Prince Philip during her 70-year reign, to the public yesterday.
Dr Williams explained that the areas not usually open to visitors showed a different side to Royal life. He said: ‘These are not rooms with grand chandeliers. These rooms are much more liveable, domestic, very comfortable spaces of a modern couple.
‘It does give us a quite new insight into this aspect of the life of Queen Elizabeth II. The contrast is really quite marked.’
The rooms date from the 17th century and have been used by the Royal Family since Queen Victoria’s reign. Queen Elizabeth stayed at the palace during Holyrood Week each summer, undertaking a series of engagements celebrating Scottish culture and achievement, including the annual garden party.
The private rooms are furnished with historic objects from the Royal Collection, as well as pieces from the late couple’s personal collections.
Tours take visitors through rooms and spaces including the royal breakfast room, where they would dine privately while in residence.
Dr Williams said the Queen would have her breakfast there with the Queen’s piper playing down below in the garden.
She and the Duke of Edinburgh would have a newspaper delivered, alongside the Radio Times and the Racing Post.
The tours conclude in the sitting room where the Queen would work, reviewing the documents presented in the Government red dispatch boxes, as well as hosting private audiences or just resting, often while watching horseracing on television.
The tours of the private rooms will run daily until September 10 and must be booked in addition to the standard admission ticket to the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
