Heritage harm to St James’s Park site said to be ’fully outweighed’ by substantial public benefits of the scheme
Foster + Partners’ winning proposal for a national memorial to Queen Elizabeth II has been unanimously approved by Westminster council.
Councillors voted to back a recommendation for approival from planning officers for the £46m St James’s Park scheme yesterday evening.
It comes nine months after the firm’s vision for a “family of gardens” commemorating the life of the late monarch was named winner in a competition to design the memorial, beating four rival finalists including Heatherwick Studio and Wilkinson Eyre.
Other practices shortlisted last year for the memorial were landscape architects Tom Stuart-Smith and J&L Gibbons.
Foster + Partners’ proposal consists of a network of landscaped spaces either side of the park’s lake, linked by a new bridge which is set to replace the lake’s existing 1950s Blue Bridge. The design team also includes landscape designer Michel Desvigne.
It will also include a statue of the Queen at Marlborough Gate designed by sculptor Martin Jennings, a companion statue of Prince Philip, a bust of the Queen at Birdcage Walk designed by Karen Newman and a Commonwealth sculpture by Yinka Shonibare.
While planning officers said the plans would cause harm to the park through the reconfiguration of the grade II-listed Marlborough Gate and the loss of the Blue Bridge, an undesignated heritage asset, it said this would be “fully outweighed” by the substantial public benefits of the scheme.
It said these benefits include Fosters + Partners’ wider replacement bridge, the creation of more accessible landscape and a “national memorial of great importance”.
Historic England also supported the plans, arguing they responded “broadly” to the historic and aesthetic character of St James’s Park, ”whose creation and evolution has always been intimately tied to royalty”.
The Georgian Group, the Royal Parks, and the Thornley Island Society also backed the application, although the Westminster Society said it “cannot support” the scheme.
The latter’s concerns included the use of cast glass in the proposed bridge, which it said could be dangerous, and the public consultation process, which it claimed had felt like it was “just keeping the society up to date and than any comments/criciticisms were not welcomed or addressed”.
Norman Foster said last year the design aimed to capture both the formality of the Queen’s public role and the essence of her character when out of the public eye.
“I knew The Queen on formal occasions but also enjoyed her informality when attending events as a member of the Order of Merit,” he said.
“We have sought to reflect these qualities of the formal and informal in our design, with an appeal across a wide range of ages and interests. To these ends, we have discreetly stretched the boundaries of art and technology with a deliberately gentle intervention.”
Robin Janvrin, chair of the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee, has described the winning design was an “ambitious and thoughtful masterplan [that] 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.”
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