The final designs for Queen Elizabeth II's national memorial have been released — now it's time to have your say

A national memorial to the late Queen will be built in a reimagined St James’s Park, Central London, and a shortlist of five ambitious proposals have been revealed. A little green haven between Buckingham Palace, Green Park, Horse Guards, The Mall and Birdcage Walk, the park is currently home to some 40 pelicans and statues of the monarch’s parents, George VI and the Queen Mother. All five entrants have chosen the lake, remnant of the lost River Tyburn, as a focal point and the budget will be between £23 million and £46 million. The public is now invited to offer comment, which the Evaluation Panel will take into account when choosing a winner this summer.

One proposal, from Heatherwick Studio (above; with Halima Cassell, MRG Studio, Webb Yates and Arup), incorporates a Memorial Walk and bridge of 70 giant, limestone lilypads (one for each year of the Queen’s reign), with a statue in the middle beneath a canopy of eight sculptural lilies — possibly the most flamboyant option, and attractive, even if it does make St James’s Park look like Singapore and is called the Bridge of Togetherness.

Another, from Tom Stuart-Smith (with Jamie Fobert Architects, Adam Lowe (Factum Arte) and Structure Workshop) (possibly this writer’s favourite), centres on an exact cast of the 900-year-old Signing Oak in Great Windsor Park, which appears to float on a plinth in the lake, glimmering and majestic, connected to a path made of stones from all around Britain, ‘from Caithness to Cornwall’. This begins at a newly configured entrance on The Mall, where there would be a new figurative sculpture of the Queen, and passes various bronzes while a ‘soundscape of memories’ plays and touchpoints emit authentic sounds of the Commonwealth.

Wilkinson Eyre’s proposal (above; with Lisa Vandy and Fiona Clark, Andy Sturgeon Design, Atelier One and Hilson Moran), is ‘a thread of pathways and landscapes gently woven through the natural fabric of St James’s Park — its trees, lake, and terrain — creating a contemplative journey that honours her seven decades of service’. Including a pair of bridges, the threads represent ‘defining themes of Her Majesty’s life: Reign, Faith, Commonwealth, Values, Nature, Family, and Prince Philip’.

A little more widespread, Foster + Partners (above; with Yinka Shonibare and Michel Desvigne Paysagiste), suggest a ‘tranquil family of Royal gardens’ that involves new figurative sculptures of the Queen and Prince Philip, a Wind Sculpture by Yinka Shonibare and a Unity Bridge, with the Queen’s voice ‘ever present through audio installations and inscriptions, alongside an ever-evolving digital conservatory, accessible from the site, or anywhere in the world’.

In fact, digital elements are everywhere on this shortlist, an interesting sign of the times that may have befuddled John Nash, who redesigned the landscape in the 1820s, and show just how much the world changed during the Queen’s 70-year reign.

Lastly, J&L Gibbons (above; with Michael Levine RDI, William Matthews Associates, Structure Workshop and Arup) wish to create ‘a meandering flow of geology carrying people through an ephemeral choreography of blossoming and colour beneath the high tree canopy’; it’s a bridge ‘over soil, tree roots and water’ made from stone from the four nations that stretches from The Mall to Birdcage Walk, inspired by the ethos that the Queen was the nation’s bedrock. Various paths lead to places such as a Whispering Walk and Magnolia Glade.

Creating a space for reflection was at the core of the design brief, but other factors, such as value for money, visitor experience and sensitivity to the original masterplan for the Grade I-listed park, are important. A separate search for a sculptor to work alongside the winner is ongoing.

Visit https://competitions.malcolmreading.com/queenelizabethmemorial/gallery for more information and to have your say on the shortlist.