Elizabeth Town

How should London physically commemorate Queen Elizabeth II?

Please click here if you’d like to support this idea and agree that is something which the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee should consider.

This is not a ‘zero sum’ game. Victoria has more than one commemoration in London. So can Elizabeth II.

Here’ one suggestion. As London now has an area known as Victoria, so in the future we should have a central neighbourhood known as Elizabeth or Elizabeth Town. The area to the north of Mayfair, Soho and St Giles and to the south of Marylebone and Fitzrovia through which Oxford Street runs has no real name. And, frankly, Oxford Street is an embarrassment.

Why don’t we relabel this neighbourhood Elizabeth Town and start a multi-year programme of popular commemoration and improvement? This should have many components. This could include:

    • Using trees and a new street layout to create a new public square, Elizabeth Square, by Marble Arch.
    • Erecting a public statue of Elizabeth II on Elizabeth Square or alternatively at Oxford Circus.
    • Running an ambitious street tree planting programme along Oxford Street and in surrounding streets, very much continuing the marvellous Queen’s Canopy which celebrated her Platinum Jubilee.
    • Renaming the new Elizabeth Line exit on Bond Street Tube Station as Elizabeth Town.
    • Running trams along the current Oxford Street to improve the capacity of current busses.
    • Pedestrianising all or part of Oxford Street as the Mayor of London has announced he plans to do.
    • Agreeing a popular and beautiful pattern book for new buildings and, when they come up, replacing or re-facading tired and ugly buildings with beautiful replacements with more space for homes.
    • Encouraging through planning and direct provision new homes and new affordable homes in Elizabeth Town. We who live now are all Elizabethans by birth. Why not create generations of Elizabethans into the far future?

This need not be the only way that London commemorates Queen Elizabeth II. But it seems to meet many sensible criteria.

    • It is significant and meaningful. The longevity of the late Queen’s reign and the significance of her service merit an intervention in London’s fabric and nomenclature which is of the first order.
    • It is true to Elizabeth II, to her standards, nature and service, to her love of nature and to her adaptive and small ‘c’ conservatism.
    • It is not part of something that is in itself physically controversial.
    • And it would make life better for Londoners and those who visit London: commemoration combined with amelioration.

Please click here if you’d like to support this idea and agree that is something which the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee should consider.