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Images | Five shortlisted designs for memorial to Queen Elizabeth II revealed
08 May 2025
A shortlist of five designs for the construction of a memorial to Queen Elizabeth II has been unveiled in the UK.
A shortlist of five designs for the construction of a memorial to Queen Elizabeth II has been unveiled in the UK.
The winning memorial will be built in St James’s Park in London and is being envisaged as a new national landmark.
The construction budget ranges between £23 million and £46 million (US$30.5 million - $61 million), depending on the design chosen.
The five shortlisted designs are:
Foster + Partners with Yinka Shonibare and Michael Desvigne Paysagiste would install sculptures of Queen Elizabeth II alongside Prince Philip at Birdcage Walk, by the relocated Marlborough Gate and Prince Philip Gate. Between the gates, the Commonwealth Garden and Yinka Shonibare’s Wind Sculpture will be a Community Garden and a ‘Unity Bridge’.
The design by Heatherwick Studio with Halima Cassell, MRG Studio, Webb Yates and Arup takes the form of a memorial walk. It honours Queen Elizabeth’s 70-year reign, with the path expressed as 70 lily pads. At the centre of the bridge would be a limestone sculpture of Queen Elizabeth II, protected by a canopy of eight sculptural lilies.
J&L Gibbons with Michael Levine RDI, William Matthews Associates, Structure Workshop and Arup would build an innovative stone bridge through St. James’s Park, using stone from all four home nations.
Tom Stuart-Smith with Jamie Fobert Architects, Adam Lowe (Factum Arte) and Structure Workshop have proposed an exact cast of an oak tree from Windsor Great Park, standing on a plinth in the lake. A curved stone bridge would connect the memorial to the surrounding landscape. The memorial path would be made from stones from across Britain, starting at a newly configured entrance on The Mall.
WilkinsonEyre with Lisa Vandy and Fiona Clark, Andy Sturgeon Design, Atelier One and Hilson Moran have designed a memorial with a pair of bridges spanning the lake at its heart, framing views of the park, royal palaces, and London skyline.
A panel of Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee members will select the winning design concept in summer 2025 and work with the team on the final design, which is expected to be unveiled in 2026, in what would have been the late Queen’s centenary year.
The winning design concept will be subject to further development and later planning permission.
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