Queen statue will show grandeur and dignity, sculptor says
The sculptor commissioned to create a statue of Queen Elizabeth II for her national memorial has said he hopes to capture the “grandeur and dignity” of the country’s longest-reigning monarch.
Martin Jennings, who has previously sculpted King Charles III and the Queen Mother, admitted he was surprised to be chosen for such a significant commission. “She was beloved and admired around the world for her unfaltering dedication to service, borne with compassion, decency and patience,” he said. The statue will form part of a wider memorial in St James’s Park, central London, and is due to be unveiled in 2026.
Speaking to the PA news agency, Jennings said he had no fixed vision for the monument at the outset but was intent on gaining the Royal Family’s approval. His aim, he added, was to convey the late Queen’s stature with an “appropriate grandeur” and a sense of stillness. “People had very strong feelings about the Queen,” he said. “I’ll be going through a period of listening, not only to what the invested organisations and individuals want, but also to what the wider public expects from this representation.”
St James’s Park, which overlooks Buckingham Palace, will be re-landscaped to accommodate the memorial. The cost has previously been estimated at between £23 million and £46 million. The anti-monarchy campaign group Republic has argued the Royal Family should fund the project themselves, with chief executive Graham Smith insisting: “They can pay for their own statue.”
The winning memorial design, selected from a shortlist of five proposals, will feature a glass balustrade inspired by the Queen’s wedding tiara. A statue of the late monarch with Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years until his death in 2021, will be placed at the Prince Philip Gate alongside newly designed gardens. The final plans will be presented to the King and the Prime Minister next year.
