Lord Foster has worn a virtual reality headset to preview a statue of Elizabeth II<\/a>.<\/p>\n The world-renowned architect and his firm carried out a \u201chybrid mock-up\u201d of the national memorial to celebrate the late monarch\u2019s reign and legacy.<\/p>\n Early risers in London were treated to a sneak preview of the work as a cutout model was hoisted on a cherry picker at the entrance to the St James\u2019s Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n The bronze statue<\/a> immortalising Elizabeth II and her historic reign will eventually depict her in her twenties standing on a plinth overlooking The Mall.<\/p>\n The process took place so Lord Foster and his team could plan the scale of the design – Jeremy Selwyn<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Nearby, a smaller statue of her lifelong consort, Prince Philip, carved in his naval uniform, will stand \u201ca few paces behind\u201d and \u201clooking up\u201d at his wife of more than 70 years.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Lord Foster<\/a> looked on in the early morning so his firm Foster + Partners and the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee could plan the scale of the design.<\/p>\n It is understood the process allowed them to determine the appropriate scale of the two statues and their plinths and how they sit within the historically sensitive Marlborough Gate, on The Mall.<\/p>\n Lord Foster, who was appointed to the Order of Merit by Elizabeth II, said: \u201cModels and mock-ups have always been an integral part of the design process at Foster + Partners, enabling us to visualise how the statues will complement their historic surroundings.<\/p>\n \u201cEmbracing the latest technology, the exercise has been vital in helping us develop and refine the proposals for the memorial.\u201d<\/p>\n Martin Jennings<\/a>, who is sculpting the work, also looked on with other members of the design team, as members of the public took photos of the early reveal.<\/p>\n An early plan for the statue had seen Elizabeth II sitting on horseback, however this had switched to show her wearing her robes of the Order of the Garter.<\/p>\n Elizabeth II in a painting by Pietro Annigoni, commissioned in 1955, on which the statue is modelled – Annigoni\/Camera Press<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n The planning committee changed the proposal<\/a> after a public consultation decided this would make her appear more \u201caccessible\u201d.<\/p>\n Lord Foster\u2019s memorial will be made up of a family of gardens<\/a> through the park, complete with meandering paths and a new translucent glass bridge<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr Jennings\u2019s sculpture of the Queen will take inspiration from the celebrated 1955 portrait of Elizabeth II by Pietro Annigoni, the Italian artist.<\/p>\n The work captured the young monarch just a few years into her reign, draped in her weighty Garter robes and gazing into the distance.<\/p>\n The statue will stand 7.3m high \u2013 with the Queen three metres tall, perched on a 4.3m plinth \u2013 in a new civic space called Queen Elizabeth II Place at Marlborough Gate on the edge of the park.<\/p>\n St James\u2019s Park will be transformed in tribute to the nation\u2019s longest-reigning monarch – Jeremy Selwyn<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n The smaller companion statue \u2013 3.8m in height, with a 2.3m figure and a 1.5m plinth \u2013 of her husband will be located 20m behind in the park. Prince Philip will be represented at a similar age, wearing his Admiral of the Fleet uniform.<\/p>\n Lord Janvrin, Elizabeth II\u2019s former private secretary and chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee, said: \u201cWe thought it was very important that the statue of the Queen, our head of state, was on the ceremonial route in her own right.<\/p>\n \u201cShe will be depicted standing on her own. But Prince Philip was such an important part \u2013 they worked as a team \u2013 of the realm that we\u2019ve decided that he should be a few paces behind the Queen, a position he was accustomed to.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cPrince Philip will be looking up because she is on a slightly higher pedestal.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.aol.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lord Foster has worn a virtual reality headset to preview a statue of Elizabeth II. The world-renowned architect and his firm carried out a \u201chybrid mock-up\u201d of the national memorial to celebrate the late monarch\u2019s reign and legacy. Early risers in London were treated to a sneak preview of the work as a cutout model […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2483325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2483323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Norman-Foster-uses-VR-goggles-to-preview-Elizabeth-II-memorial.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2483323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2483327,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2483323\/revisions\/2483327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2483325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2483323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2483323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2483323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Elizabeth](\"https:\/\/hermes.media.static.aol.com\/media\/2026\/07\/01\/30be8911-dfe2-3f75-8b9b-ed2826ef4972\/164c770e-f330-408f-b5e5-5a48da28c27d.jpeg\"\/)
<\/div>![\"St](\"https:\/\/hermes.media.static.aol.com\/media\/2026\/07\/01\/30be8911-dfe2-3f75-8b9b-ed2826ef4972\/95bebef2-b23a-4b3b-baba-e834fd0ade1d.jpeg\"\/)
<\/div>