The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Memorial, situated between The Mall and Carlton Gardens in central London, is a memorial to King George VI and his consort, Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother). Completed in its present form in 2009, the memorial incorporates an earlier, Grade II listed statue of George VI by William McMillan, unveiled by his daughter Queen Elizabeth II in 1955. The reconfigured memorial, which includes a statue of the Queen Mother by Philip Jackson, relief sculpture by Paul Day and an architectural setting by Donald Buttress and Donald Insall, was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II in 2009.

The statue of King George VI was sculpted in bronze by William McMillan, and depicts him in his naval uniform. The statue stands on a base of Portland stone. The statue was unveiled by Elizabeth II in the presence of her mother and other senior members of the royal family. The architect of the memorial was Louis de Soissons. It was feared that the location of the memorial would aesthetically disrupt The Mall, adding a further set of steps so near to the Duke of York Column, but it was positively received upon unveiling on 6 October 1955.

The statue was designated a Grade II listed building on 9 January 1970.

The statue of Queen Elizabeth was sculpted in bronze by Philip Jackson, and portrays her at the time that she was widowed, aged 51. The memorial to Queen Elizabeth cost £2 million, and was funded by a special five-pound coin produced to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s 80th birthday.

A second casting of the statue was unveiled in Queen Mother Square, Poundbury, Dorset, on 27 October 2016.

Object description
Type: Monument > Statue
Location: Carlton House Terrace, London SW1
Material: Bronze, stone
Artist: William McMillan RA (1887 – 1977), Philip Jackson CVO DL (b. 1944)
Date: 1955, 2009
Listed: Grade II

Image details
Date: 10 April 2025
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm ƒ3.5-5.6G ED
Focal Length: 42mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.3
Shutter Speed: 1/1,000s
ISO: 280
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Object description
Type: Monument > Statue
Location: Greenwich, London SE10
Material: Bronze
Artist: William McMillan RA (1887 – 1977)
Date: 1959
Listed: Grade II

Image details
Date: 10 April 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Telephoto Camera 52mm ƒ/2.4
Focal Length: 52mm
Aperture: ƒ/2.4
Shutter Speed: 1/1,043s
ISO: 16
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International