The Cabinet Office has announced that Foster + Partners, a sustainable architecture and design firm, had won the contract to design the Queen Elizabeth II national memorial in St James’s Park.
In a statement, the Government shared that Foster + Partners’ design concept celebrates the late queen’s life and her ability to balance “tradition and modernity, public duty and private faith, the United Kingdom and a global Commonwealth” with two gates and two gardens joined together by a bridge—inspired by the Modern Fringe Tiara—and a unifying path.
The two gardens will symbolise the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth while the bridge that unites them will be designed with a cast-glass balustrade that echoes back to Queen Elizabeth’s wedding tiara from 1947.
The Queen Mary’s Modern Fringe tiara was originally a necklace presented to the future Queen Mary on her wedding day in 1893. Mary of Teck, as she was known pre-marriage, received the diamond necklace from Queen Victoria. She later turned it into a tiara in 1919 with the help of Garrard and passed it down to her daughter-in-law Queen Elizabeth in 1936.
Queen Elizabeth II wore the tiara—which she often referred to as “Granny’s tiara”—on her wedding day in 1947. The beloved tiara would later grace the heads of Princess Anne on her first wedding day in 1973; and Princess Beatrice wore it on her wedding day in July 2020.
Queen Elizabeth II’s national memorial will also feature sculptures in tribute to the late queen’s love of horses and one uniting Queen Elizabeth and the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. A Prince Philip Gate will also immortalise the late queen’s “strength and stay.”
Norman Foster, the founder and executive chairman of Foster + Partners, said in a statement on the firm’s website that “At the heart of our masterplan is a translucent bridge symbolic of Her Majesty as a unifying force, bringing together nations, countries, the Commonwealth, charities and the armed forces.”
The intention, he also shared, is to have minimal impact on the nature and biodiversity of the park area in St James’s Park, and to phase the build so that the park will never be closed.
Robert Janvrin, the chair of the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee said that the design will “allow us and future generations to appreciate Queen Elizabeth’s life of service as she balanced continuity and change with strong values, common sense and optimism throughout her long reign.”
The Queen Elizabeth Memorial will be situated near The Mall at Marlborough Gate. A final design will be unveiled in April 2026 to coincide with what would have been Queen Elizabeth II’s 100th birthday. A full programme of events to commemorate her centenary will also be unveiled at the time.
