The Queen Elizabeth II National Memorial Masterplan Design Competition was a two-stage open search for an exceptionally dedicated and inspired multidisciplinary team to create a landmark memorial masterplan of outstanding aesthetic quality that celebrates and honours Queen Elizabeth II.
Envisaged as a celebration of Elizabeth II as well as a place of reflection, the memorial project needs to tell the story of a long reign and be beautiful, inclusive and sustainable. The site traverses London’s Grade I listed St James’s Park and is at the heart of London’s ceremonial and constitutional cityscape.
The challenge and opportunity could hardly be more significant: the project will create a new national landmark.
Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer said that the memorial would provide a place to honour the late Queen and ‘connect with the shared history we cherish’.
MRC’s competition brief included a new bridge over the Park’s lake, opportunities for artistic interventions and enhancing existing landscaping, as well as a space for a figurative representation of the late Queen (to be designed by renowned British sculptor Martin Jennings).
In summer 2025, the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee selected the team led by Foster + Partners as the competition winner, with a celebratory proposal that balances tradition and modernity, public duty and private faith. Their proposed cast-glass bridge, recalling Queen Elizabeth’s wedding tiara, will unite the two halves of the Park enhanced by naturalistic gardens dedicated to the Commonwealth and the UK’s communities.
The final design will be formally announced in April 2026, alongside a legacy programme, to coincide with what would have been Queen Elizabeth’s hundredth birthday year.
Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee Chair Robin Janvrin, the Late Queen’s Private Secretary, said:
‘Selecting the winner was no easy task. All five of the shortlisted teams produced creative designs of the highest quality.
Foster + Partners’ ambitious and thoughtful masterplan 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.’
