The winning design for the national memorial for Queen Elizabeth II will feature a bridge with a balustrade made of glass, new gates and commemorative gardens. The bridge is inspired by the shape of the late Queen’s wedding tiara. The design will also feature her husband Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, alongside a traditional, large statue of the late Queen overlooking the Mall.
Lord Norman Foster’s design team has been announced as the winner of the competition for a memorial to honour Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, to be built in St James’s Park in central London. The translucent bridge is inspired by the shape of the late Queen’s wedding tiara.
Newly-laid gardens in St James’s Park will commemorate the Commonwealth and the communities of the United Kingdom. “We respect the biodiversity and nature of that part of the park, which is alive with wildlife,” Lord Foster told the BBC. The memorial was a creative attempt to convey the “values she represented” to the “many people who are passing through the park”.
The different layers of the memorial would suggest the “richness, the complexity and the many different dimensions” of the late Queen’s reign, he said. And the bridge would have a “jewel-like” quality, he said. “The bridge is lightweight. It can be floated along the Thames, it can come in overnight. The old bridge can be taken away. It’s translucent, a very light touch in the landscape.”
The final look of the statues will depend on the sculptor, who has yet to be appointed. But the illustrations of the main monument so far have shown a conventional image of the late Queen on horseback. She was “so synonymous” with horse riding, said Lord Foster. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, said it was a “beautiful memorial” to the late Queen’s “life and legacy of public service”.
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