Peter Pan Statue in Kensington Gardens

Peter Pan, the hero of our childhood, at least mine anyway. Who hasn't dreamed of going to visit Never Ever Land? I grew up watching Disney films and this story set in London was always one of my favourites. Years passed by and then someone special came into my life that reminded me of Peter Pan and Tinkerbell and I started to believe in all of the things that I had lost sight of growing up. Well, in my case, everything started going right.

In this post, I would like to talk about the Peter Pan statue which is located in Hyde Park. I've visited this park numerous times in this past and since the first time I visited London, I knew it existed and where it was, but it was only this year that I went to visit it. I had always been told that it was quite difficult to find and that you'd just end up getting lost. This time, I set out to find it with the help of a friend who had been there.

We asked two policemen and a park security guard where we would be able to find it. To be honest, I didn't find it that difficult to find, but hey, some people might not have a great sense of direction. To get there, we had to cross a bridge over the Serpentine lake and walk alongside it until we reached the Serpentine bridge at the other end that separates Hyde Park from Kensington Gardens. You then have to pass the Lady Diana memorial (I will talk about it another day) and go under the bridge a few meters ahead, close to the exit to the park by the metro stop 'Lancaster Gate'. Finally, on the side of 'the Long Water' (a continuation of Lake Serpentine), next to an area where flocks of seagulls gather, we spotted the bronze statue. It is smaller than what I expected.

Peter is playing a wind instrument similar to a flute or an oboe, and is surrounded by fairies and small animals such as rabbits. After doing a little research, I learnt that its foundation was built secretly during the night of 'May morning' in 1912, by the artist Sir George Frampton.

It is said that the creator of the story itself, James Matthew Barrie, commissioned Sir George Frampton to create the statue because he originally inspired to write the story from taking walks through the park. The statue was modelled on a 6 year old boy named Michael Llewelyn Davies, a friend of Barrie who dressed as the character.

Whatever the case, the reality is that this statue of 'The boy who never wanted to grow up' is one Hyde Park's monuments that attracts all sorts of tourists from around the world. I would call it the JoyaSecreta of Kensington Gardens.

However, this isn't the only one. There are lots of similar Peter Pan statues all around the world but what's more, is that there is one exactly the same in Brussels! What are the chances! It is actually located in Egmont Park, which is quite hidden in the city itself, but it is just behind Egmont Palace. It is said that this statue was built as a symbol of friendship between British and Belgian children.

To finish, because I was writing about it, I took some time to research the origin and hsitory of these statues, and suprisingly, I discovered there aren't just

Finally, I would like to mention that since it was placed on the subject, I decided to investigate thoroughly about the origin of these statues, and surprisingly, I discovered that were not only two exactly the same, but five more! So that's a total of seven beloved Peter Pan statues, commissioned to the sculptor George Frampton, built in different parts of the world. I am going to tell you where they are in case one day, you would like to visit all of them:

• Kensington Gardens (London, UK)
• Egmont Park (Brussels, Belgium)
• Sefton Park (Liverpool, UK)
• Camden (New Jersey, USA)
• Glenn Gould Park (Toronto, Canada)
• Bowring Park (Newfoundland, Canada)
• Queens Gardens (Perth, Australia)