Laura ReynoldsFriday Photos: We Bear AllThe London Ice Bear was an ice sculpture of a polar bear in Trafalgar Square in 2009 to raise awareness of global warming. More of the bronze skeleton is revealed as the ice melts. Photo: Where The Art IsThe animal sculptures at the Tower of London are by artist Kendra Haste. Photo: PikakokoThis little guy was spotted after surviving Notting Hill Carnival 2009. *hic* Photo: Stephanie SadlerThis bear was spotted busking in Portobello Road Market in 2011. Photo: GurpreetAt least we know London's bears are clean...even if they need a little help. This bear lives outside a shop near the British Museum. Photo: Andrew SmithThis Paddington Bear book bench was on display throughout the summer. Photo: Dave PearceThese colourful - if slightly alarming - trinkets were spotted in Camden. Photo: Imran AhmadThese bears mean business. Spotted on Park Lane in 2009. Photo: Norman CraigIn 2009, a model bear aboard a teeny tiny "ice" raft was sent down the Thames in order to raise awareness of Arctic peril.* Photo: Mike KingIn 2013, Boris the polar bear spent a month in Sloane Square, raising awareness of endangered animals. He now lives at London Zoo (which, since you ask, no longer houses real bears). Photo: cdb41This is a Banksy piece, or so the story goes - in 2011 a false trail led Banksy fans to search along the Kent coast for this work, before it was found in Lewisham after it had been there for seven months. Photo: Romany WGStreet Art by Animaux Circus in Great Eastern Street, 2013. Photo: Stuart Sunley
Having previously published photo galleries of lions and tigers in recent months, we decided it was time to further our photographic foray into London's animal kingdom. Despite our only native species — the Brown Bear — going extinct from Britain in around the 10th century, bears have maintained a key presence in London culture, from the polar bear at the Tower Menagerie which was famously allowed to swim in the Thames, to the fictional likes of Paddington and Winnie the Pooh.
