There's not so much an elephant in the room when you enter one of Cardiff’s oldest businesses, but a huge bear.
Ask people who have grown up in the capital about the Bear Shop and it’s likely they will not only have heard of it, but have a story to tell.
Bruno may not be as famous as Paddington, Pooh or Yogi outside the confines of the city limits, but this particular Russian bear’s reputation is every bit as large as his 7ft frame within them.
To visitors to Cardiff who aren’t aware of the largest tobacconists in Wales, he must present something of a startling sight from his vantage point in the window of the shop in the Wyndham Arcade.
Nevertheless, the presence of the bear that is rumoured to be 200 years old has cultivated a legend that has endured in a shop that has stood the test of time – almost 150 years in fact. And for generations of children he has evoked nothing but wide-eyed wonder.
When I put a picture of Bruno up on my Facebook page, I was inundated with stories from adults who have fond and vivid recollections of encountering the bear as children.
In the city he is as famous as the legendary Billy the Seal. One Cardiffian who won the lottery in the 1990s was even said to be willing to part with £8,000 of his winnings to have him on show in his new home. The offer was turned down, but it only served to embellish the bear’s burgeoning reputation.
The story of the Bear Shop began in 1870 when William Arthur Lewis founded a retail and wholesale tobacco business in Cardiff. Some three decades later – from around 1900 – the bear was positioned in the business. The business flourished and expanded to some 16 shops in the area.
After Lewis’ death in 1928, control passed to his daughter Winifred and her husband Harold Darbey. They in turn passed control to their son Alan Lewis Darbey. The shop used to be on the corner of Wood Street and St Mary Street, but in 1990 the business moved across the road to Wyndham Arcade – and then later moved again to its present home further down the arcade at number 12/14.
In the interim it changed hands several times and suffered something of an uncertain future, until in 2010 when the shop was bought by British cigar magnate Paresh Patel. He not only secured its future but has seen the business thrive.
The businessman, who brought the Bear Shop under the banner of his Havana House group – a series of seven tobacconists around the UK – has his own personal ties to the shop and is well aware of its rich history.
“In our industry it’s a famous shop,” he says. “People do know of it. I had friends who studied in Cardiff. We’d go into town and you’d see this shop and you’d see the bear in the shop.
“You may not remember the shop but you would always remember the bear!”
He says that pinning down the exact back-story of Bruno, who was three quarters grown when he died, is not an easy task, as there are so many conflicting tales – one that he was a circus bear that died, another that he was once owned by a famous opera singer.
“I’ve heard that there were three bears in total, originally,” says the owner. “Two adults and a little bear. I was told in order to do repairs, they did a trade and gave the other two bears in return for the repair.”
Thankfully, the Bear Shop is still here and Paresh confides that the business was on the brink until he rode to its rescue.
“It had changed hands a few times before we bought it,” he says. “It was endangered and on the verge of closing. If no one took it over then it probably would have closed down.
“But we didn’t buy the shop because we were worried it was going to close down. It was a good business, a good shop. I knew straight away that if we ran it properly it would carry on.
“I was obviously comfortable with Cardiff because I knew the town very well,” he adds. “It wasn’t like going into a new town and not knowing anything.
“You walk into Cardiff now and you think, ‘Wow there’s a lot of people who come into this town’ and through that you can see the potential. The development of Cardiff is not over yet.”
Talking to Paresh you sense his enthusiasm and passion for his trade – something he has instilled in a business he sees as providing a comfort and warmth to customers who love the nostalgia the Bear Shop evokes.
“As soon as I saw it I thought it’s like walking back in time,” he says. “The counters, the shop fittings, it’s all very quirky. It all fits in.
“There are very few shops now where you walk back in time. The counter in there must be about 70 or 80 years old. The shelves are the same.
“But that’s part of the attraction, people love that nostalgia. They like to walk into a place that hasn’t changed, there’s a comfort and warmth in that – and then that’s reflected in the relationship we have with our customers.
“You can talk to people, have a bit of personal one-to-one. We’re losing that in this day and age.”
The businessman sees the Bear Shop as an integral part of not only Cardiff’s retail community but the fabric of the city’s rich history – despite being a business that is at the mercy of constantly fluctuating smoking legislation and people’s ever-shifting habits.
“After buying the Cardiff shop I bought another five shops and they’re all old historical shops and they’re all part of the local community,” he says. “The Cardiff shop is more than 140 years old. I’ve got a shop in Bath that’s 140 years old. I’ve got a shop in Hove that’s been in the same location for 130 years.
“If you add up all the years of all the shops we’ve been trading in, it’s about 690 years.”
I tell him it sounds as much like a historical preservation project as it does a business.
“It is in a way,” he laughs. “There are no new entrants into this business now. There are people who either just want to carry on with what they’re doing or there’s one or two of us who see opportunities who take on businesses.”
The woman on the frontline of the Bear Shop’s continued success is manager Darshna Patel (no relation to the Havana House owner). She has spent the last five years immersing herself in the world of cigars, rolling tobacco, pipes and the many other lines that the shop provides its loyal custom base.
“I used to have my own business, a supermarket-off licence in Whitchurch Road, which I ran for about 17 years,” she tells me. “Paresh was looking for somebody so I came in.
“It was a little bit of a learning curve, as it’s such a specialist trade, but it didn’t take long to pick it up.”
Darshna has also quickly learned what the shop means to the hearts and minds of those customers and the locals who flock to the shop – as much for the array of tobacco products as to visit Bruno.
“We get as many people who want to see the bear as we get customers,” she smiles. “A lot of people come here who may be visiting the city again after 50 years and they remember the bear being on Wood Street and can’t believe he’s still here. They bring their children and grandchildren. Everybody wants to take a picture.”
Previously, Bruno stood unobstructed in the shop, but he is now in a wooden case that surrounds him – a recent measure to ensure harmony between those wanting a picture and their customers.
“When he was out in the open in the shop people wanted to touch him for luck,” she recalls. “In the box it keeps him safe and tidy, plus it looks better. People were just coming in to see the bear which was difficult because of space.
“And, of course, now when the shop is closed people can still see the bear and take pictures.
“We’re always pleased to see people who have come to see the bear, though. We love listening to their stories. It’s lovely to work in a shop that means so much to people.”
In the 1980s, when Bruno was positioned outside the shop on St Mary Street, he was set upon by drunken rugby fans before a Wales v Scotland international match and had his paws torn off.
He was repaired but, for a bear that is rumoured to be as old as he is, you can’t take any chances.
I’m surprised to learn that Bruno isn’t actually stuffed but is instead mounted on a metal frame.
“He doesn’t need much maintenance,” says Darshna. “We just give him a quick dust down. At Christmas he gets a big dust down as his present.”
The largest tobacconist in Wales, the shop also boasts an impressive selection of cigars from all over the world in the spacious cigar room.
In recent years the business has diversified into an array of new products, including an elite range of gentleman’s gifts such as shaving sets and shaving products, beard oils, hip flasks, lighters, tankers and old-fashioned games. There’s also an assortment of whiskies and rums on sale which Darshna says complements the cigar range.
“There are not many specialist tobacconists left,” she says. “People can shop online with us, but we find they like to come into the shop. We get people coming from all over to visit us.
“Pipe tobacco has experienced a resurgence, youngsters are getting into it. Many of them say it reminds them of growing up and they associate the smell of the tobacco with their granddad. It evokes memories.”
As the shop is not allowed to advertise, they can’t actively promote their business in tourist guides, but the word-of-mouth of having a 7ft bear in your shop is its own legendary marketing device.
“We do get a lot of Americans visiting us,” says the shop manager. “The tobacco market in the US is huge and hoteliers will always point tourists in the direction of the shop.”
Like many other businesses, the Bear Shop experiences its own seasonal up-turns.
“We’re coming into wedding season now, there are graduations, people want a cigar for special occasions,” says Darshna. “People like to celebrate with a cigar. There’s Father’s Day as well, that’s also an important date for us.”
For the future, the Bear Shop aims to remain what it is now – an iconic Cardiff landmark and a business that continues to survive against the odds.
“I’ve quickly learnt what the shop means to people,” says Darshna. “People are pleased we are still here. They love to tell us their stories.
“We hope they will continue to do so for some time yet.”
