The Foster + Partners team has won the competition to design the national memorial honouring Queen Elizabeth II. The winning team features artist Yinka Shonibare CBE and renowned landscape designer Michel Desvigne.
“It is an honour and a privilege for our team to be awarded this project. Her Majesty loved history and tradition, so this is reflected in the inspiration of the original design of St James’s Park by Sir John Nash. Some of his principles have survived, whilst others have been lost and will be restored, creating a family of gardens joined by gently meandering paths.”
Founder and Executive Chairman of Foster + Partners Norman Foster
Five finalist teams (Foster + Partners, Heatherwick Studio, J&L Gibbons, Tom Stuart-Smith, WilkinsonEyre) were asked to create a masterplan that would honour and celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s extraordinary life of service and provide the public with a space for reflection.
Foster + Partners’ winning design concept honours Queen Elizabeth’s life through a period of significant change, blending tradition and modernity, public duty and private faith, the United Kingdom and a global Commonwealth. The design demonstrates how she united these dualities: two gates, two gardens, connected by a bridge and a unifying path.
Foster + Partners’ design concept features figurative sculptures and a new Prince Philip Gate. It also features gardens – dedicated to the Commonwealth and the communities of the United Kingdom – to create spaces for reflection and coming together. Artistic installations will celebrate the nation’s diversity.
A new bridge, replacing the existing Blue Bridge, will feature a cast-glass balustrade that recalls Queen Elizabeth’s wedding tiara. This design concept will be subject to change as it undergoes refining, and later planning permission.
The Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee’s selection panel found Foster + Partners’, design, balancing formal and informal elements, impressive and capable of creating an engaging landmark to endure for generations to come. The panel also valued Foster + Partners’ artistry, use of space, technical skills and their sensitivity to the memorial’s location.
Foster + Partners will now develop its initial concept in close collaboration with the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee. They will work together to select a sculptor to create the memorial’s figurative element. The Committee will announce the chosen sculptor later this year.
The memorial will be situated in St James’s Park, an area of historical and constitutional importance that also holds personal significance for Queen Elizabeth II. It will include a section of the Park near The Mall at Marlborough Gate, adjacent to Bird Cage Walk, and will replace the current bridge connecting these areas with a new crossing.
The final design is scheduled to be officially revealed in April 2026, alongside a legacy programme, aligning with what would have been Queen Elizabeth’s hundredth birthday year.
Find out more at the Design Competition website.
Images Credit: Foster & Partners team – Courtesy of Malcolm Reading
