The Bear Garden - A Potted History!

The Bear Garden was opened on 2nd November 1992 in Guildford town centre by Andrew Colborne-Baber. Andrew graduated from the University of Wales with a degree in French and German, but on leaving university, he had absolutely no idea of what he wanted to do. After turning down a couple of job opportunities in London, he decided to start his own teddy bear business after searching Guildford high and low for a decent bear, which he could give as a birthday present to his Mum! Andrew is believed to be the youngest person ever to have opened a specialist teddy bear shop.

Since opening, The Bear Garden has established itself as one of the UK's leading teddy bear specialists, carrying an enormous range of bears. In particular, The Bear Garden is one of the UK’s top stockists for famous German manufacturer, Margarete Steiff GmbH. But this is only part of the story, as The Bear Garden stocks teddy bears and animals from all the major manufacturers, as well as some beautiful work from leading bear artists.

The Bear Garden was launched onto the Internet at the beginning of 1998 and this was followed at the beginning of 1999 by the launch of its secure on-line ordering service. This was a first for UK teddy bear shops. Over the years, the website has had several face-lifts to keep it looking fresh, however in May 2006, the website was totally re-launched with a whole new look and lots of added features.

In 2002 The Bear Garden organised its first trip to visit the Steiff factory and museum in Germany. This has been followed by subsequent annual trips. All of them have been very successful and a great deal of fun. If you think that you might like to join us on a future trip, then please do drop us an email and we will send you details of the next one.


Our newsletter is called The Bear Life and is delivered free to every subscriber. Each copy contains news about the latest bears, as well as details of past and future events. It also has special features and a competition to win a lovely bear!

If you have missed previous issues you can read them by clicking the links below. If you would like to save the pdf file onto your computer for later reading, then please right-click the link below and select “Save target as…”

2007
Issue 10 : Summer (2.2MB)

2006
Issue 9 : September / October (0.9MB)
Issue 8 : May / June (1.6MB)
Issue 7 : January / February (2MB)

2005
Issue 6 : August / September (0.7MB)
Issue 5 : April / May (1.5MB)

2004
Issue 4 : December (0.7MB)
Issue 3 : August / September (0.5MB)
Issue 2 : April / May (0.7MB)

2003
Issue 1 : October (0.4MB)

To subscribe to The Bear Life, please email us your address by clicking here.

For features on The Bear Garden and some of our events and activities please click here.