The National Police Memorial is a memorial in central London, commemorating about 4,000
police officer
A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...
s killed in the course of their duties in the United Kingdom. It was designed by
Lord Foster of Thames Bank and
Per Arnoldi and unveiled in 2005. The project architect for Foster was Peter Ridley.
Historical background
In 1984, following the shooting of
Yvonne Fletcher
The murder of Yvonne Fletcher, a Metropolitan Police officer, occurred on 17 April 1984, when she was fatally wounded by a shot fired from the Libyan embassy on St James's Square, London, by an unknown gunman. Fletcher had been deployed to mo ...
, film director
Michael Winner
Robert Michael Winner (30 October 1935 – 21 January 2013) was a British filmmaker, writer, and media personality. He is known for directing numerous Action film, action, Thriller films, thriller, and black comedy films in the 1960s, 1970s and ...
founded the
Police Memorial Trust
The Police Memorial Trust is a charitable organisation founded in 1984 and based in London. The trust's objective is to erect memorials to British police officers killed in the line of duty, at or near the spot where they died, thereby acting as ...
. Initially the trust concentrated on erecting smaller monuments at the points where officers had died on duty. From the mid-1990s, the trust also lobbied and raised funds for a single, larger scale memorial to commemorate all police officers who had died in the course of their duties. Winner stated that "Memorials to soldiers, sailors and airmen are commonplace, but the police fight a war with no beginning and no end".
Winner donated £500,000 of his own money to the campaign for a national memorial.
The remainder of the total cost of £2.3million was met by a public collection.
After a ten-year campaign,
Westminster City Council
Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors. The council is currently composed of 31 Labour Party members and 23 Cons ...
granted planning permission in October 2002.
Design and construction
The memorial was built to a design by
Lord Foster of Thames Bank and Danish designer
Per Arnoldi, on the corner of
The Mall and
Horse Guards Road
Horse Guards Road (or just Horse Guards) is a road in the City of Westminster, London. Located in post code SW1A 2HQ, it runs south from The Mall down to Birdcage Walk, roughly parallel with Whitehall and Parliament Street.
To the west o ...
, directly outside the
Old Admiralty Building
The Admiralty was a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral of ...
. The site was occupied at the time by an air shaft on the
Bakerloo line
The Bakerloo line () is a London Underground line that goes from in suburban north-west London to in south London, via the West End. Printed in brown on the Tube map, it serves 25 stations, 15 of which are underground, over . It runs partly ...
of the
London Underground
The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...
.
![Maintenance work on Police Memorial](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Maintenance_work_on_Police_Memorial.jpg)
On 22 July 2004, a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony took place on the site, performed by
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
, Michael Winner, and officers from the
Metropolitan Police
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...
and
Greater Manchester Police
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England.
, Greater Manchester Police employed 6,866 police officers, 3,524 memb ...
, representing the two forces with the highest number of officers killed in the line of duty.
![National Police Mem column](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/National_Police_Mem_column.jpg)
The memorial was formally unveiled on 26 April 2005 by
Queen Elizabeth and Tony Blair.
Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne (born Michael Hecht; 7 July 1941) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005. He previously held cabinet posi ...
and
Charles Kennedy
Charles Peter Kennedy (25 November 1959 – 1 June 2015) was a British Liberal Democrat politician who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1999 to 2006, and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ross, Skye and Lochaber from 1983 ...
, the leaders of the UK's other leading political parties at the time, were also present. A guard of honour was provided by 56 officers wearing the uniforms of each of the UK's police forces.
The Queen stated that "It is surely appropriate that this should be positioned in The Mall - an area of London so often associated with our national way of life. When people pass by the memorial, I hope they will pause and reflect on the proud traditions that it represents. The courage and personal sacrifice recorded here will, I am certain, serve as an inspiration to us all."
Despite concerns over the potential cost,
construction of the memorial eventually came in at £400,000 under budget, in part because a number of the contractors concerned carried out their work free of charge.
The memorial was a winner of the
Royal Institute of British Architects
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three suppl ...
award for 2006.
Architectural elements
![National Police Mem](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/National_Police_Mem.jpg)
The memorial consists of two distinct architectural elements, linked by a terrace of
Purbeck stone
Purbeck stone refers to building stone taken from a series of limestone beds found in the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Purbeck Group, found on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset in southern England. The best known variety of this stone is Purbeck M ...
.
A black rectangular
creeper-covered enclosure surrounds the air shaft, forming a single block. The northern face of the enclosure is kept free of creepers, and is inscribed with the police badge of office and the text "The National Police Memorial: Honouring Those Who Serve". This face also includes a
vitrine in which the Roll of Honour is displayed.
Immediately north of the block, a glass column is sited in a
reflecting pool
A reflecting pool, also called a reflection pool, is a water feature found in gardens, parks, and memorial sites. It usually consists of a shallow pool of water, undisturbed by fountain jets, for a reflective surface.
Design
Reflecting pools are ...
. The column is internally illuminated by
fibre optic
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means to ...
cables with a faint blue light,
symbolising the blue lamp which traditionally hangs outside
police station
A police station (sometimes called a "station house" or just "house") is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, al ...
s in the United Kingdom.
The column is intended to screen the vitrine from passing traffic on The Mall. The column is high, consisting of 622 stacked sheets of glass, a total surface area of , weighing 28.6tonnes.
Roll of Honour
![National Pol Memorial book](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/National_Pol_Memorial_book.jpg)
The memorial contains the UK Police Roll of Honour behind a glass panel, containing the names of approximately 4,000 officers killed whilst on duty, in the course of effecting an arrest or whilst carrying out hazardous duties.
The earliest entry is that of
Watchman Isaac Smith, who died of injuries in 1680. The book is compiled from the approximately 4,000 names recorded by the
Police Roll of Honour Trust
The Police Roll of Honour Trust is a charitable organisation registered in England & Wales and Scotland, it was founded in 2000 and records all those British police officers who have died on and in the line of duty. It has been granted a Royal Cha ...
, listing all officers who have died in the line of duty.
File:Charles Brett.jpg, Manchester Police Sgt Charles Brent (1867)
File:Sergeants Tucker and Bentley and PC Choate.jpg, Sergeants Tucker and Bentley and PC Choate (1910)
Criticism
The memorial attracted criticism from some families of officers killed in the line of duty, regarding the high cost,
and that the roll of honour lists only those officers killed during arrests or as a result of criminal acts, rather than all officers killed in the line of duty; also that, with the book being behind glass, friends and relatives of the deceased are not able to view the relevant page.
Before construction, objections were also raised to the memorial's construction by the London Historical Parks Group and the local residents' association. Concern was also raised by some
Irish republicans
Irish republicanism ( ga, poblachtánachas Éireannach) is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate.
The developm ...
that the memorial includes the names of those
RUC officers killed in
The Troubles
The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...
.
[. The criticism was from Irish Republicans and their supporters, some of whom consider the RUC/PSNI to be a ''de facto'' paramilitary force occupying a foreign country, so their casualties were neither "national" nor "police".]
References
External links
The National Police MemorialImage gallery at Foster & Partners
{{Good article
2005 sculptures
Law enforcement in the United Kingdom
Law enforcement memorials
Monuments and memorials in London
Buildings and structures on The Mall, London