After Elizabeth II died on 8 September 2022, it became of paramount national importance that a suitable memorial was constructed in memory of her and her unparalleled reign. Since it was announced that some of the leading architects in the country would be in competition to come up with something that would act as a fitting testament to her, there has been fevered speculation as to which design would be triumphant. Something suitably stately and reverential, perhaps, to remember the late Queen as a public figure? Or perhaps something brilliantly daring and unusual, which would have the artistic establishment in raptures at its encapsulation of the country’s greatest ever monarch?
After all, if a terrible idea has come this far, what is to stop it going all the way?
Alas. The shortlist has now been announced, and it’s thin gruel indeed. Some of the best-known architectural firms in Britain are vying with one another to commemorate the Queen, including Foster + Partners and Wilkinson Eyre.
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