{"id":439813,"date":"2025-09-21T01:25:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T01:25:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/439813\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T01:25:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T01:25:15","slug":"sculptor-creating-queen-statue-in-london-park-wants-king-charles-to-get-final-sign-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/439813\/","title":{"rendered":"Sculptor creating Queen statue in London park wants King Charles to get final sign-off"},"content":{"rendered":"

The final design is due to be revealed in 2026<\/p>\n

11:10, 20 Sep 2025Updated 11:10, 20 Sep 2025<\/p>\n

\"MartinMartin Jennings has previously impressed with sculptures of King Charles, the Queen Mother, George Orwell and Mary Seacole(Image: Ben Whitley\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

A renowned sculptor tasked with creating a statue of Queen Elizabeth II<\/a> for her national memorial<\/a> in one of London’s Royal Parks said he wants to craft the \u201cgrace and dignity\u201d of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. Martin Jennings, who has previously portrayed King Charles III<\/a> and the Queen Mother, said he is \u201cabsolutely thrilled\u201d to be involved in the project.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 68-year-old’s artwork will sit within the new Queen Elizabeth II Place in St James\u2019s Park, close to Buckingham Palace<\/a>. The winning design will also feature a Prince Philip Gate and statue, a \u201cfamily of gardens\u201d and a glass bridge inspired by the shape of the late Queen’s wedding tiara.<\/p>\n

Mr Jennings told the PA news agency that he does not have a “defined idea” of how the statue will look, and first wants the Royal Family’s sign-off. He said: “We have historical precedence. There\u2019s the Victoria Memorial next to Buckingham Palace at that end of The Mall, and the memorial further down the Mall towards Admiralty Arch of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.<\/p>\n

\"CGIA large statue of the late Queen on horseback is the standout feature of the memorial park(Image: Foster & Partners)<\/p>\n

“And these offer some kind of precedent, but I would like to make something that has clearly been made now, I don\u2019t want to make something that could be mistaken as having been put up 150 years ago or even 50 years ago.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m sure this will be a wonderful new piece of work that also pays tribute to the longevity of Queen. She became Queen in the early 50s, that\u2019s a long time ago, so this needs to be a compelling artwork of today, but suited to the whole period of her reign.”<\/p>\n

Mr Jennings also created a bust of the Queen Mother in St Paul\u2019s Cathedral and the first crowned coinage portrait of the King. He has also sculpted statues of outside BBC<\/a> Broadcasting House, Philip Larkin in Hull, Mary Seacole in London\u2019s St Thomas\u2019 Hospital and the Women Of Steel in Sheffield.<\/p>\n

\"AA concept image of the glass bridge, illuminated at night time(Image: Foster & Partners)<\/p>\n

He added: “There is a poignant link between making representations of three members of the Royal Family<\/a> from three different generations. It almost feels like these projects are joined to each other, and let\u2019s not forget, the Queen Mother was born in 1900 so this stretches historically across more than a century.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on: \u201cWe have yet to find out how the project will work and I\u2019m sure the King and the royal family will be very interested in how Queen Elizabeth is represented. I would want to have their approval.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MarlboroughThe late Queen’s statue will sit close to Marlborough Gate in St James\u2019s Park(Image: Emily Whitfield-Wicks\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Mr Jennings said the statue needs to have \u201call the grandeur and dignity appropriate\u201d for a ceremonial route. He added: \u201cIn terms of the Queen herself, I think (the statue) would probably benefit from a certain amount of stillness.<\/p>\n

“She was known for her grace, her decency and her restraint. And those are things I\u2019d like to bear in mind when I\u2019m making it.<\/p>\n

“I make a sculpture as if only one person is going to see it, it may be a million people, but that\u2019s a million individuals. And so it\u2019s a direct communication with each of those single people.”<\/p>\n

The final design for the memorial is expected to be revealed in 2026, which would have been the late Queen’s 100th birthday year. As of now, the project has a budget of between \u00a323 million and \u00a346 million.<\/p>\n

Looking for more from MyLondon? Subscribe to our daily newsletters<\/strong> here<\/a> <\/strong>for the latest and greatest updates from across London.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The final design is due to be revealed in 2026 11:10, 20 Sep 2025Updated 11:10, 20 Sep 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,2633,7730,7731,1760,518,7710,519,2417],"class_list":{"0":"post-439813","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-buckingham-palace","10":"tag-charles","11":"tag-charles-iii","12":"tag-king-charles","13":"tag-king-charles-iii","14":"tag-royal-families","15":"tag-royal-family","16":"tag-the-queen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115239683880920681","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}