London’s St James’s Park is set to become the latest canvas for national remembrance, as renowned British sculptor Martin Jennings has been chosen to create a statue of Queen Elizabeth II for a new national memorial. The project, officially announced on September 20, 2025, brings together some of the UK’s most celebrated artistic and architectural talents to honor the country’s longest-reigning monarch, who died in 2022. The memorial, named Queen Elizabeth II Place, will be located at Marlborough Gate, just a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace, ensuring it will be seen by millions of visitors each year.
For Jennings, whose portfolio includes statues of literary giants, war heroes, and members of the royal family, the commission is both a professional highlight and a deeply personal undertaking. “I was absolutely thrilled,” Jennings told Sky News, recalling the moment he received the invitation. “It’s a terrific commission to be asked to do and to be quite honest, I can’t quite remember what the rest of the phone call was all about—I was so delighted to have been appointed.”
Jennings’ excitement is matched by a sense of responsibility. “I am elated to have been invited to make the sculpture of Queen Elizabeth,” he said, as reported by several outlets. “She was loved and admired across the globe for her steadfast devotion to duty, borne with grace, decency and restraint. The monument must not only reflect the grandeur of its setting but be an object of delight to its countless visitors in years to come.”
The memorial’s design will be a collaborative effort. Jennings will work closely with Foster + Partners, the architectural firm led by Lord Norman Foster, famed for iconic London landmarks like The Gherkin. Foster’s vision for Queen Elizabeth II Place includes not just the statue of the late Queen, but also a new Prince Philip Gate on Birdcage Walk featuring a statue of the Queen’s late husband, a series of gardens, meandering paths, and a striking translucent glass unity bridge. The project’s provisional construction budget ranges from £23 million to £46 million, excluding VAT, reflecting the scale and ambition of this new civic space.
The final design is expected to be unveiled in 2026, coinciding with what would have been Queen Elizabeth II’s 100th birthday. This centenary will also see other commemorative events, including the largest-ever exhibition of her fashion at the King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, featuring around 200 items—half of which have never been publicly displayed before.
Robin Janvrin, chairman of the Queen Elizabeth II memorial committee and the late Queen’s former private secretary, expressed his confidence in the choice of sculptor. “We felt he had a very sensitive understanding of the significance of this unique commission and we were impressed by Martin’s previous work and his ability to capture the essence of character in public works of art,” Janvrin said, according to The Telegraph.
Jennings’ artistic résumé is indeed impressive. He has previously created a bust of the Queen Mother that resides in St Paul’s Cathedral, and his is the hand behind the first crowned coinage portrait of King Charles III. Other notable works include statues of poet Philip Larkin in Hull, nurse Mary Seacole at St Thomas’s Hospital in London, the ‘Women of Steel’ in Sheffield, and George Orwell outside BBC Broadcasting House. For Jennings, there is a “poignant link” across three royal generations, having now represented the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and King Charles III in his art. “It almost feels like these projects are joined to each other, and let’s not forget, the Queen Mother was born in 1900 so this stretches historically across more than a century,” he reflected in an interview with the Press Association.
Yet, despite his experience, Jennings is approaching the Queen Elizabeth II statue with humility and openness. “At this stage we haven’t defined an idea for it,” he explained. “Intentionally it was planned that there would be discussions about how to represent her. I was appointed more on the basis of my past work than in response to a particular design. I think the commissioning body wanted to know that they were in safe hands, that I could deliver a monument to Queen Elizabeth that would respond to people’s needs, respond to the committee’s needs, respond to the aesthetics and the requirements of Foster + Partners.”
Jennings is committed to a period of listening, both to invested organizations and the public at large. “Of course this will garner attention from across the globe and people have strong feelings about the Queen,” he said. “I will be going through a period of listening to not only what invested organisations and individuals want of it, but taking the temperature of how the populace at large might want to see this representation.”
When it comes to the statue’s design, Jennings is clear about wanting to strike a balance. “It needs to have panache, it needs to have grandeur to suit its site, it needs to have a kind of delight to it,” he told Sky News. “But she was so constant that the dignity, the restraint and the grace that we associate with her are things that at the moment are at the forefront of my mind.” He’s also keen to ensure the artwork is unmistakably modern. “I would like to make something that has clearly been made now, I don’t want to make something that could be mistaken as having been put up 150 years ago or even 50 years ago. I’m sure this will be a wonderful new piece of work that also pays tribute to the longevity of the Queen. She became Queen in the early ‘50s, that’s a long time ago, so this needs to be a compelling artwork of today, but suited to the whole period of her reign.”
The process will be carefully overseen by a panel of committee members, with the final design recommendation to be submitted to the King and Prime Minister for approval next year. Jennings anticipates “considerable interest” from the Royal Family, noting that the King is “keen that his mother should be represented appropriately.” Ultimately, he hopes the result will be “something that both they and the general public are proud of.”
As London prepares to honor Queen Elizabeth II with a memorial that blends tradition and contemporary sensibility, the project stands as a testament to the enduring impact of her reign—and to the continuing power of public art to unite and inspire.
