Idea for a British Garden in the heart of Lower Manhattan conceived by Camilla G. Hellman after September 11, 2001.
Mission of the British Memorial Garden is threefold:
- Celebrate the historic ties of friendship and unity between the U.S. and the U.K.
- Commemorate the British victims of the World Trade Center attacks
- Help revitalize Lower Manhattan
The British Memorial Garden is a New York City park and a gift to the City of New York and its people from the Anglo-American community and its friends.
The garden was designed by Isabel and Julian Bannerman, leading British landscape architects, best known for their work for HRH The Prince of Wales.
All the stone carving in the garden, including the county map of Great Britain, was done by British sculptor Simon Verity.
The British Memorial Garden sculpture to Unity will anchor the garden and will be created by British artist Anish Kapoor.
The cost of the garden is $6.75 million. The garden is being funded by private donations and gifts from foundations and corporations; it does not receive government money.
All of the elements of the garden have come from the UK, including stone from Scotland and Wales and benches of English stone manufactured in Northern Ireland.
Ground was broken on May 10, 2005 and construction was ongoing through 2007.
The center stone of the garden was dedicated on November 1, 2005 by TRH The Prince of Wales (the garden’s Royal Patron) and The Duchess of Cornwall.
Landscaping and planting began in Hanover Square in spring 2007 and is ongoing.
The garden is administered by the British Memorial Garden Trust, Inc., which is a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit organization.
Below you can view a five minute Powerpoint Show reviewing the history of the Garden as of March 2008:
If you prefer, you may download this full PowerpointShow presentation for high quality offline viewing or display here.
Should you not have a Powerpoint Viewer, you can download one from Microsoft.
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