Applications Open to Design Queen Elizabeth II Memorial

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20 December 2024

The search for a team to create a memorial to Queen Elizabeth II in St James’s Park has begun.

The government is looking for architect-led multidisciplinary teams to express interest in designing a permanent memorial to the UK’s longest-serving monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.

The Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee will identify a team of artists, architects, engineers, and landscape architects and other specialists to create the scheme at St James’s Park along a pathway from Marlborough Gate across the Blue Bridge to Birdcage Walk.

The competition brief includes a new bridge over the lake (replacing the Blue Bridge) and a standalone monument of the late Queen at the Marlborough Gate entrance. 

The project budget will be in the range of £23–46 million excluding VAT, with the planning consent process to begin in summer 2025 and construction scheduled to start in 2027.

The first stage doesn’t require any design submissions, with prospective teams only required to submit their profile, team composition, and experience. This stage closes at 14:00 on 20 January 2025. Subsequently, there will be a ten-week design stage for a shortlist of five competitors, who will be paid £50,000.

Committee Chair Lord Janvrin said: “We want to attract the finest teams of architects, artists, landscape architects, engineers and other specialists to work with us to create an outstanding design for the memorial site. We are looking for teams who thoroughly understand and connect with our ambitions for the project.

“The challenge at the second stage for the finalists will be to evoke memories of Queen Elizabeth II’s outstanding contribution to national life and to tell the story of Her Majesty’s long reign through an original masterplan that is sensitive to the unique setting.

“The memorial must be - simply - a beautiful place, somewhere to visit with family and friends, to enjoy and to reflect on an extraordinary life.”

Picture: a photograph of Queen Elizabeth II. Image Credit: Shutterstock

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 20 December 2024

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