London. In tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, the British government will finance the construction of a memorial that will cross St James Park, next to Buckingham Palace. Sovereign for more than seventy years, Elizabeth II has known the longest reign in the history of the monarchy across the Channel. The British wanted to offer him a monument on the height of his journey. For this purpose, a forecast budget of 23 to 46 million pounds (27 to 54 million €) was announced. The project involves the redevelopment of part of this park and the expansion of the bridge which crosses its lake, built in 1957. Artistic and interactive interventions will also have to find their place.
Opened in December, the competition to select the team of designers in charge of the memorial will end on January 20. “It must be a magnificent place, a place where you can go with your family and friends, where you can appreciate and think about an extraordinary life”said Lord Janvrin, the chairman of the project in charge of the project. The site should not aim for an exclusively British audience, but must be likely to contact all visitors, whatever their origins, their beliefs or their education. The team of designers will also have to think about the accessibility of the project and its durability, considering, for example, a way of minimizing the risks of vandalism and ensuring continuous, easy and inexpensive maintenance.
Unsurprisingly, the Memorial Committee will take into account the value for money of the candidates’ proposals. However, originality will not be a decisive criterion. The specifications, on the other hand, ask the candidates to respect the landscape architecture of John Nash, the British architect of the 19th century originally, among others, of Regent’s Park. The memorial will finally have to integrate planted gardens as well as a sculpture or a figurative statue in the British tradition of commemoration of monarchs. The artist in charge of this work will be appointed by the designer who will have won the project.
The extent of this memorial is exceptional compared to the previous commemorative buildings of royalty. The land dedicated to the Elizabeth II Memorial is much larger than that of King George VI, his father, whose statue is on the Mall, the large alley that runs along the St James park. The monument dedicated to Queen Victoria, unveiled in 1911, also included the redevelopment of the land against the entrance to Buckingham Palace. In addition to the queen’s statue, this monument included a series of other statues as well as commemorative gardens.
The five teams selected at the end of the first competition will be announced in the spring and will then have ten weeks to submit their project. The memorial team will be known in the summer. The finalized project should be presented in 2026, to coincide with what should have been the hundredth anniversary of the Queen.
