Thanks to the viral Paddington and Queen Elizabeth II video that celebrated their joint love of marmalade sandwiches, mourners have been leaving stuffed Paddington bears and his favorite sandwich at tribute sites for the Queen’s passing. There’s just one small problem: People are leaving way too many of them. In an official statement, The Royal Parks is now advising mourners to please stop leaving the bears and sandwiches at the tribute sites. It was very cute, but do you know how long marmalade sandwiches last in the September heat Not long.
You can see an announcement from the Royal Parks below:
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) September 12, 2022
The Royal Parks offered guidance for tributes on its official website, and as you can see below, they are steering people away from stuffed bears and towards flowers, preferably unwrapped:
In the interests of sustainability, we ask visitors to only lay organic or compostable material. The public will be asked to remove all wrapping from floral tributes and place these in the bins provided. Removing the wrapping will aid the longevity of the flowers and will assist in subsequent composting which will start between one week and a fortnight after the date of the funeral.
We would prefer visitors not to bring non-floral objects/artefacts such as teddy bears or balloons. Cards and labels will, however, be accepted and will be periodically removed by The Royal Parks’ staff and contractors for storage offsite. This process will be carried out with discretion and sensitivity.
If you somehow missed the Paddington and Queen Elizabeth collaboration that’s now resulted in London being coated in marmalade sandwiches, you can watch it below. Like the Paddington films, it’s pretty delightful:
— Michael Cowan (@mrmikecowan) June 4, 2022