7 July Memorial

7 July Memorial in 2009

The 7 July Memorial is a permanent memorial to the 52 victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings. It is located on the east side of Hyde Park, between Lover's Walk and Park Lane, close to Curzon Gate and about 150 metres (490 ft) north of the monumental statue of Achilles.^[1]

Design

The monument is made of 52 stainless steel columns (or stelae), each 3.5 metres (11 ft) tall and weighing about 850 kilograms (1,870 lb). The stelae are grouped in four linked clusters that reflect the four locations of the bombings at Tavistock Square, Edgware Road, King's Cross and Aldgate East tube station. The columns are anonymous, but each is inscribed with the date, place and time of the relevant bombing; a separate plaque lists the names of those killed. The form of the memorial, with many standing columns, has been compared to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, and the New Zealand War Memorial at Hyde Park Corner.^[2] A grass bank to the east of the memorial shields the site from the noise of traffic on Park Lane.^[3]

The proposal for a permanent memorial was announced on 13 February 2006, with £1 million of central government funding. The memorial was designed by a team including architects Carmody Groarke, engineers Arup, and landscape architects Colvin and Moggridge (see Brenda Colvin), advised by sculptor Antony Gormley, in consultation with representatives from the families of the victims, and also representatives from the Royal Parks and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.^[4][5][6][7] The steel was cast by Norton Cast Products of Sheffield.^[8] Each pillar was cast in sand using the same mould, but using an open casting process that means each is slightly different, with a rough surface texture.^[9]

The proposed design was approved in November 2008,^[10] and the completed memorial was unveiled on the fourth anniversary of the attacks on 7 July 2009, at a ceremony attended by family members and relations of the victims and Charles, Prince of Wales, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, and other political leaders and representatives from the emergency services. ^[11]

The memorial was one of 102 structures given an award by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2010.^[12][13]

Vandalism

The memorial was defaced with graffiti two weeks after its dedication ceremony in 2009, with words written on the memorial with a black marker pen^[14] It was vandalised for a second time in 2014, on the morning of the ninth anniversary of the attacks. In the 2014 incident slogans such as "4Innocent Muslims", "Blair Lied Thousands Died" and "J7 Truth" were stencilled in red and black on the memorial, and were removed shortly after being discovered by the park's manager.^[15][16]

In June 2015, there were concerns that the site was being used by a group of rough sleepers.^[17]

Gallery

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  Memorial in July 2009, five days after it was unveiled

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  Memorial plaque

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  Floral tribute on a pillar

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  Detail on a pillar

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 7 July Memorial, London.

Public art and memorials in London
Statues	Monarchs Richard I Charles I Charles II James II Anne St Paul's Westminster George III George IV George V George VI Others Alanbrooke Becket Bolívar Brunel Burns Cambridge Canning Chaplin Churchill Clive Cook Cromwell Derby Devonshire Disraeli Frere Freud Gagarin Gandhi Greathead Haig Havelock Holmes Irving Jenner Kitchener Lawson Lincoln Lloyd George Mandela Moore Montgomery Mountbatten Myddelton Napier Newman Orwell Outram Palmerston Peel Raikes Reynolds Roberts San Martín Shakespeare Slim Smuts Trajan Wallenberg Washington Wellington City Hyde Park Corner Wesley St Paul's Shoreditch Westminster White Winehouse Wolseley
Memorials	7 July Memorial Albert Memorial Queen Alexandra Memorial Anti-Air War Memorial Bali Bombings Memorial Bazalgette Memorial Bolan's Rock Shrine Breathing Bromhead Memorial Burdett-Coutts Memorial Sundial Edith Cavell Memorial Cheylesmore Memorial Agatha Christie Memorial Donne Memorial Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross (Charing Cross) Faraday Memorial George VI and Queen Elizabeth Memorial Golden Boy of Pye Corner Grace Gates Memorial to the Great Exhibition Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice Hogg Memorial Holocaust Memorial Kennedy Memorial Kindertransport – The Arrival Lister Memorial The Monument National Firefighters Memorial National Police Memorial Nelson's Column Pankhurst Memorial Queen Elizabeth Gate Suffragette Memorial Victoria Memorial Twelve Responses to Tragedy ("Yalta Memorial") Wellington Arch Wellington Monument Whittington Stone A Conversation with Oscar Wilde Duke of York Column
War memorials	Pre-WWI Animals in War Crimean War Gurkhas (1816–) Marble Arch New Zealand Campaign (1863–64) Royal Marines (1899–) Siege of Cádiz Westminster School WWI WWII Australia Baltic Exchange Battle of Britain Belgium Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red Bromley Canada Cavalry The Cenotaph Chindits Chingford Chipping Barnet Civil Service Rifles Cockfosters Croydon La Délivrance Enfield Town (3 memorials) Finchley Flanders Fields Memorial Garden Fulham Golders Green Great Eastern Railway Great Western Railway Guards Division Hampton Wick Hendon Hornsey Imperial Camel Corps Islington London and North Western Railway London Troops Machine Gun Corps Memorial Gates Merchant Navy Monken Hadley New Barnet New Zealand Paddington Poland Poplar Rainham Royal Air Force RAF Bomber Command Royal Artillery Royal Fusiliers Royal Naval Division Royal Tank Regiment South Africa (Richmond) South Suburban Gas Company Southwark Submarines Women of World War II Wood Green Post-WWII Korean War
Fountains	Buxton Memorial Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Diana Fountain, Bushy Park Diana Fountain, Green Park Fawcett Memorial The Horses of Helios Guilford Place Matilda Fountain Revolving Torsion Roehampton St Lawrence Jewry and St Mary Magdalene Shaftesbury Memorial ("Eros") Lady Henry Somerset Memorial Victoria Park
Other works	ArcelorMittal Orbit The Arch 1979–1980 The Barbican Muse Big 4 Boadicea and Her Daughters Brixton murals Bull The Burghers of Calais Christ Child Crystal Palace Dinosaurs The Diver Dolphin lamp standards Dragon boundary marks Elfin Oak Fourth plinth, Trafalgar Square Fulcrum The Gold Smelters Homage to Leonardo Icarus Knife Edge Two Piece 1962–65 Labyrinth London Noses London Pride The Messenger Millennium Dial The Naked Ladies Nike Old Father Time Paternoster Paternoster Vents Physical Energy Platforms Piece Quantum Cloud The Queen's Beasts Rush of Green St Paul's Cross Single Form (Memorial) A Slice of Reality Slipstream South Bank Lion Still Water Sutton Heritage Mosaic Sutton twin towns mural Traffic Light Tree Winged Figure World World Cup Sculpture The Young Lovers Three Standing Figures 1947 Talking Statues Works formerly in London
Blue plaques	Camden Kensington and Chelsea City of Westminster
By borough	City of Westminster Hyde Park Kensington Gardens (partly in Kensington and Chelsea) Paddington St Marylebone Architectural sculpture City of London (not a London borough) Barking and Dagenham Barnet Bexley Brent Bromley Camden Croydon Ealing Enfield Greenwich Hackney Hammersmith and Fulham Haringey Harrow Havering Hillingdon Hounslow Islington Kensington and Chelsea Kingston Lambeth Lewisham Merton Newham Redbridge Richmond Southwark Sutton Tower Hamlets Waltham Forest Wandsworth
Organisations	Art on the Underground London Mural Preservation Society Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association
Statues in London on Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 51°30′21″N 0°09′10″W / 51.5059°N 0.1528°W / 51.5059; -0.1528