Artists and architects shortlisted in Queen Elizabeth II memorial design competition

The UK government has announced a final shortlist of five proposed designs for a national memorial to Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September 2022. The proposed memorial will be located in St James’s Park in London, the UK’s oldest Royal Park, close to Buckingham Palace. The winning entry will be decided this summer but no date has been set for the unveiling.

Members of the public can give feedback online regarding the five designs. They include a “tranquil family” of royal gardens linked by a natural stone path devised by Norman Foster of Foster + Partners, along with the artist Yinka Shonibare, the ecologist Nigel Dunnett and the landscape architect Michel Desvigne. “The Queen’s voice is ever present through audio installations and inscriptions,” says a statement.

Meanwhile Heatherwick Studio with Halima Cassell, MRG Studio, Webb Yates and Arup says its design “honours her 70-year reign, with [a] path expressed as 70 lily pads, each like stepping stones, bearing reflections from voices across the Commonwealth and Realms”. At the centre is a sculpture of the late Queen sheltered by a canopy of eight sculptural lilies.

J&L Gibbons with Michael Levine RDI, William Matthews Associates, Structure Workshop and Arup have proposed a stone bridge that represents Elizabeth as the “bedrock of the nation”. This team says that their design will be “crafted, timeless and versatile, using stone sourced from the four nations”, promising “a perambulation through glades that invites forest bathing in the heart of the city”.

Tom Stuart-Smith with Jamie Fobert Architects, Adam Lowe (Factum Arte) and Structure Workshop have as the centrepiece of their design “an awe-inspiring oak from Windsor Great Park, representing [the Queen’s] strength, endurance and the historic place of the monarchy in our constitution.” The design encompasses a memorial path made from stones from across Britain, incorporating bronze casts of significant objects from the late monarch’s life.

Finally, WilkinsonEyre with Lisa Vandy and Fiona Clark, Andy Sturgeon Design, Atelier One and Hilson Moran “envision a thread of pathways and landscapes gently woven through the natural fabric of St James’s Park—its trees, lake, and terrain—creating a contemplative journey that honours her seven decades of service”. A pair of bridges also span the lake as part of this masterplan.

The memorial will be paid for with public funds. “As a national memorial to the country’s longest-serving and much-respected monarch, the government has identified a provisional construction budget of £23m-£46m excluding VAT for the project,” says a government statement.

Panellists on the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee include Sandy Nairne, the former director of the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the historian Anna Keay. A standalone monument including a figurative representation of the late Queen will be placed at the Marlborough Gate entrance on The Mall. An artist or sculptor for the figurative element will be appointed in a separate competition.

Government officials previously began discussing ways to mark the Queen’s life and legacy, with the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square seen as a possible location for a statue.