XTRA DIARY - Bomber Command park memorial war of words continues - With a loss of trees and likened to 'Hitler's Berlin', controversial Green Park statue still set to go-ahead

Artist's impression of the Bomber Command memorial

Published: 10 December 2010

THE bust-up over the Bomber Command Memorial – set to be built next year in Green Park – shows no sign of abating. 

Last week architect Ivor Hall criticised the memorial saying it was “reminiscent of the grandiose monumental architecture of Hitler’s Berlin” – a comparison that a spokeswoman for the Bomber Command Association this week branded offensive.

“It is bad taste to compare the memorial to something that Hitler might build, especially considering that it is dedicated to the men who gave their lives to free Europe from Hitler’s regime,” she told Diary. “Westminster Council, English Heritage and a large number of influential opinion-forming groups have applauded the position we have taken, as the scheme grapples with a complex array of urban design and landscape issues.”

Tom Ball, of the Thorney Island Society – the prestigious neigh­bourhood group that counts musician Jools Holland as a patron – this week wrote to the association pleading with them to reconsider the location of the monument. 

“The memorial,” he wrote, “could be built anywhere; there is no valid exclusive reason for it to be located in the Green Park.”

Mr Ball, who lives in Pimlico, suggested building the memorial by the Thames, writing: “On the Embankment there would be little or no harm to biodiver­sity, nor requirement to fell trees.”

The Bomber Command Association admits the memorial will result in the loss of five trees of “low category because of their poor condition or small size”, and a further four “high category trees”. 

However, the association says this will be mitigated by planting 25 semi-mature trees of up to 14 metres in height.

 

Comments

Post new comment

By submitting this form, you accept the Mollom privacy policy.