The late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, will be united in stone and light in Lord Norman Foster’s winning design for a national memorial in St James’s Park. Selected from a fiercely competitive shortlist, the scheme weaves tradition with modernity—a translucent bridge, evoking the Queen’s 1947 wedding tiara, arches over the park’s pond, while statues of the monarch, both alone and alongside her husband, will stand amidst newly landscaped gardens.
Foster, the architect behind London’s Gherkin and the British Museum’s Great Court, described the project as a delicate balance of “the formal and the informal,” where the couple’s 73-year marriage is rendered inseparable. “There was this enduring unity we sought to capture,” he said. The design includes a Prince Philip Gate, reinforcing their shared legacy.
Lord Robert Janvrin, the late Queen’s former private secretary and chair of the memorial committee, emphasised the need for the space to provoke reflection. “She was part of how this nation saw itself—how we evolved,” he told the BBC. The location, visible from Buckingham Palace, was deliberate: “She often sat for portraits in rooms overlooking this very spot.”
The bridge, with its glass balustrade shimmering like diamonds, is the most striking modern element, while the central statue—yet to be commissioned—will depict the Queen on horseback, a nod to her lifelong passion. The surrounding gardens and walks are designed as places of quiet contemplation, rich in symbolism from her reign.
No completion date or final budget has been set, though estimates previously ranged between £23m and £46m. Foster called it an “honour to stretch the boundaries of art and technology” in her memory.
Baroness Amos, a selection committee member, praised the design’s ambition, while Chancellor Pat McFadden hailed it as a fitting tribute to a monarch whose “life of service shaped the nation.”
The proposal for the memorial may change, with the committee and the team finalising the design, which is expected to be unveiled next year, coinciding with the Queen’s 100th birthday year.
When finished, the memorial will be more than a static monument; it will be a living space, where light, water, and foliage intertwine with history.
Lord Norman Foster: Architect
Visionary, pragmatist, and relentless innovator—Norman Foster reshaped the modern skyline with buildings that marry technical precision with poetic lightness. Born in 1935 into a working-class family in Manchester, he found escape in sketching industrial landscapes, a fascination that would define his career. After studying architecture at the University of Manchester and Yale, he co-founded Team 4 in the 1960s, rejecting the heavy, brutalist architecture of the era for sleek, high-tech clarity.
The 30 St Mary Axe tower (London’s “Gherkin”), the Reichstag’s luminous dome in Berlin, and the sinuous Apple Park in California reveal his creed: architecture should elevate, not dominate. Knighted in 1990 and awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1999, Foster treats each project as a dialogue between structure and environment—whether Hong Kong’s soaring HSBC headquarters or the space-age Hearst Tower in New York.
A cycling enthusiast and pilot, he approaches design with an engineer’s rigour and an artist’s daring. Now 89, his studio Foster + Partners continues to redefine cities, proving that the best architecture doesn’t just house life—it amplifies it.