News Items (2005) December, 2005  WHAT WORK IS GOING ON LATELY AT THE BRITISH MEMORIAL GARDEN? Question of the Week Q: What work is going on lately at the British Memorial Garden? A: Since spring 2005, British Memorial Garden crews have worked to transform the formerly brick-paved Hanover Square (at Pearl and William Streets) into a unique slice of Great Britain in New York City. The $6.5 million, privately funded garden is being built to commemorate the lives of Britons who died in the September 11, 2001, attacks and will feature imported stone, foliage, iron bollards, and sculpture from different regions of the United Kingdom. Currently at the site, workers are laying carved stone that will form a map of the U.K. and are pouring concrete for the new sidewalk in front of 3 and 5 Hanover Square (the buildings just northwest of the park). This work will continue through January 2006, during which time the center stone, dedicated by Prince Charles in November, also will be installed -- though work schedules will depend on winter temperatures and precipitation. November 17, 2005  BAYVILLE STUDENT MEETS CHARLES AND CAMILLA And in other Anton Community Newspapers (Long Island)  Katherine Beaumont presents HRH The Duchess of Cornwall with a bouquet of flowers on her arrival at the British Memorial Garden on November 1st while Patrick Owens, OBE, British Consul in New York and HRH The Prince of Wales look on. Picture: Mark Beaumont Earlier this month, as Prince Charles and his new wife Camilla dedicated a memorial to British victims of the World Trade Center tragedy, on the first day of their royal tour, Katherine Grace Beaumont got to see things close up. Katherine, who is 5 and attends kindergarten at Bayville Primary School, was selected to present a bouquet of flowers to HRH The Duchess of Cornwall upon her arrival at the site of the British Memorial Garden in Hanover Square, NY. The British Memorial Garden, which grew out of the dark days following September 11, 2001, is helping to revitalize one of lower Manhattan's most historic areas. Presently under construction for completion in 2006, it celebrates the long-standing ties between the United Kingdom and the United States and honors the 67 British victims of the World Trade Center attacks. The garden is intended both as a living memorial and as a place of solitude, comfort and reflection - a truly British garden drawing on the many wonderful elements of the historic gardens of Britain. Under the royal patronage of HRH The Prince of Wales, the garden is a gift to the people of New York - a place for the community to enjoy and experience the tradition of friendship that links the two nations. Katherine's father, Mark, who was born and raised in England, has been involved with the garden since its conception and serves as the webmaster for the garden's internet site at www.britishmemorialgarden.org. He is also a consultant to the cruise industry. Her mother, Maryann, who grew up in Manhasset is the Executive Director of Friends of the Arts at Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay. November 11, 2005  PRINCE CHARLES AND HIS WIFE THE DUCHESS OF CORNWALL VISIT HANOVER SQUARE By David Patrick Columbia & Jeffrey Hirsch, NewYorkSocialDiary.com  On Tuesday, November 1, Prince Charles and his wife the Duchess of Cornwall visited Hanover Square in the Financial District as part of their eight-day U.S. tour. The couple, joined by New York City Department of Parks and Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe and several British VIPs, formally dedicated a center stone for the British Memorial Garden, which is currently under construction there. Hanover Square, one of the city's oldest public squares, was named in 1714 for King George I, Elector of Hanover. This connection to England led to the square's selection by the British Memorial Garden Trust as the location for the memorial garden, which will commemorate 67 Britons who died in New York on September 11, 2001. The new park space will feature hand-carved stone from Scotland, plantings from Prince Charles's estate, Highgrove, and iron bollards from London.    
November 3, 2005  CHARLES AND CAMILLA LAUNCH US TOUR WITH TRIBUTE TO VICTIMS OF 9/11 By Olufunmi Majekodunmi  The Royal Highnesses visited Ground Zero to pay their respects to those killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre, four years ago. Afterwards, the couple unveiled a centre stone dedicated to the 67 UK victims killed in the attacks at the British Memorial Garden in Lower Manhattan. The $6.4million garden will also serve as a reminder of the strong historic ties between Britain and the US. It is due to be completed next year. Charles and Camilla met with 150 guests and family members of British victims of 9/11. He said: "Both my wife and I were profoundly moved by what we saw. Our hearts go out to you today as they did on that dreadful day." The event marks the first of a series of engagements across the country for the couple. The week long tour will take in New York, Washington and San Francisco and is widely regarded as Camilla's first test in what is well known Diana territory Twenty years ago, Princess Diana won the hearts of Americans when she danced with film star John Travolta at the White House - upstaging her husband in the process. So expect all eyes to be on Camilla. The Royals are also expected to meet Kofi Annan at the United Nations and attend a private lunch with US President George Bush and his wife. The official tour recognises the importance of the relationship between the two countries and their common bonds and shared traditions. November 2, 2005  PRINCE CHARLES AND CAMILLA TOUR NYC By Robert Kahn, Staff Writer  Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, unveil the center stone for the British Memorial Garden at Hanover Square in Lower Manhattan. It was a little bit Piccadilly Circus, a little bit media circus. The Charles and Camilla Show descended on downtown Manhattan Tuesday with a royal grip-and-grin that saw the Duchess of Cornwall and the Prince of Wales mixing it up with the masses in Hanover Square. Camilla, accompanying her husband on his first official overseas trip since their April wedding, emerged from a black sport utility vehicle at 1:45 p.m. as some 500 curious and admiring bystanders looked on. Charles, in pinstripes, followed. In a fuchsia-colored suit with crushed velvet collar and sensible black pumps, Camilla strode confidently to metal barricades and made small talk until she was joined by her husband. "What do you think of New York?" an onlooker yelled. "It's very good," Camilla replied with a gracious smile. The duo arrived stateside via chartered jet Tuesday morning and visited Ground Zero before their public appearance at the garden named for King George I of Hanover. There, in the triangular park between Pearl and Stone streets, they dedicated a stone commemorating the 67 British victims of the World Trade Center attacks. It was the first day of a weeklong tour designed to highlight Charles' environmental causes. "I thought he was going to be stiff and proper, but he was witty," said onlooker Grace Fonseca, 28, a neighborhood resident who was startled when His Royal Highness reached for her hand. "We said to him, 'Welcome to New York. I heard about your nuptials,'" Fonseca said. "He said, 'It's great to be back in New York. So you heard about my nuptials, eh?'" Camilla seemed to enjoy the attention as she accepted a bouquet from a young girl. Afterward, onlookers described her as "prettier" than they'd expected. From the Financial District, the two headed to a meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Tuesday night, they attended a star-studded cocktail party hosted by the British consul general at the Museum of Modern Art. Wednesday, the prince and duchess are to dine with President George W. Bush at the White House ahead of visits to New Orleans and San Francisco. November 2, 2005  CHARLES AND CAMILLA LAUNCH US TOUR AT GROUND ZERO By Gary Shapiro, Staff Reporter of the Sun  Charles and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, arrived in New York yesterday, opening an eight-day American tour, their first official visit together to America after getting married in April. On an unusually warm November day, the royal itinerary began at Ground Zero. “Our hearts go out to you,” Charles said, mentioning families of the victims of the September 11,2001, attacks. He said he and the duchess “were profoundly moved by what we saw — not just the scale of the outrage but the deeply distressing individual stories of heroism and of loss,” the Associated Press reported. Sixty-seven Britons died in the attacks on the twin towers, the largest single group from a country other than America. After laying a bouquet of flowers, they went to nearby Hanover Square to dedicate a cornerstone to the British Memorial Garden, which is slated for completion this summer. At midday, Charles headed to the United Nations, where he met with business leaders to discuss youth entrepreneurship in developing countries. November 2, 2005  CNN VIDEO: THE ROYALS IN NEW YORK  No longer available online. To purchase CNN videos, call 1-800-CNN-NEWS. November 2, 2005  CHARLES AND CAMILLA BEGIN US TOUR  Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall have begun their US tour by paying their respects at Ground Zero. The royal couple then inaugurated the British Memorial Garden for UK victims of the 11 September attacks. After meeting families of British victims, Prince Charles said he and his wife had been moved by what they saw. The prince is also visiting UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at the New York headquarters as part of the American tour. The royal couple's eight-day stay also includes visits to New Orleans, Washington and San Francisco. The trip is Prince Charles' and Camilla's first joint official overseas tour since they married. They were met at Ground Zero by New York Governor George Pataki, British Consul General Sir Phillip Thomas and Kenneth Ringler, the executive director of the Port Authority, which owns the site. Hundreds of well-wishers met the royal couple at the British Memorial Garden where the prince unveiled a dedication stone. After meeting relatives of some of the British victims near the garden, Charles said: "Both my wife and I are profoundly moved by what we saw, not just the scale of the whole outrage but the deeply distressing individual stories of heroism and loss. "In the four years that have passed the sorrow is not lessened. Our hearts go out to you and also to the families of the New York fire and police departments who sacrificed their lives." Talking about the memorial garden, Charles said: "Both our nations have been united by grief and strengthened by the support we have given each other." As a sign of that unity, the Union Jack was flown alongside the World Trade Center flag for the visit. November 2, 2005  THE ROYALS' SEDATE DAY IN NEW YORK From an article by Robin Givhan, The Washington Post  Prince Charles and his wife the Duchess of Cornwall tour the British Memorial Garden in New York's Hanover Square, Tuesday Nov. 1, 2005. They unveiled a center stone for the park to commemorate the 67 British victims of the World Trade Center attack. At right is Camilla Hellman, president of the British Memorial Garden Trust. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) On the first day of their first visit to America, Prince Charles and his princess consort, Camilla, started with a somber visit to Ground Zero and survivors' families and ended with a festive champagne reception at the Museum of Modern Art, where they were toasted by the likes of Sting and Joan Collins. In between, the prince visited with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, his motorcade of black Suburbans and police cruisers rushed about the city, and ordinary New Yorkers either yawned or expressed mild curiosity. Under warm sunshine and safely sequestered behind rows of barriers, the royal couple paused at different parts of the immense canyon where the World Trade Center towers once stood, then traveled three blocks away to dedicate a stone in a garden devoted to the memory of 67 Britons killed in the 9/11 attacks, more than from any other foreign country. Wednesday the pair hits Washington for three days. President and Mrs. Bush will host them for lunch and a formal dinner at the White House. Commissioned by the city's Anglo-American community, the British Memorial Garden here is under construction and not expected to open until next year, so a fake garden was created on what is essentially still a construction site here in a corner of Hanover Square in Lower Manhattan. "This is just for the prince," explained Peggy Brown, the press officer for the gardens. The grass was phony. The curved "stone" bench rimmed by boxwood was actually made of wood. And the potted ivy standing sentinel throughout the open space appeared to be made of vinyl. Topiaries were positioned about the triangular plot, their black plastic buckets barely concealed beneath mounds of wood chips. The back perimeter of the garden — the end farthest from the phalanx of cameras — was covered in a nearly 20-foot-long poster of a hedge. (Thankfully, someone had scooped up the very real mound of poop deposited amid the wood chips by Bonan the bomb-sniffing dog.) The guests, mostly British expatriates, had been pre-positioned in small conversational clusters. And for more than an hour, the gentlemen from the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation obsessed over which American and British flags — they seemed to have a cache of dozens — would be planted amid the wood chips and weighed down against a merciless wind with black sandbags. When the prince and Camilla stepped from their car to the garden, they were greeted by about 200 passers-by, tourists and natives who cheered and applauded. The prince looked dapper in a navy pinstripe double-breasted suit, pale blue shirt and navy striped tie. A pouf of navy silk protruded from his breast pocket. The duchess — the former Camilla Parker Bowles — was dressed in a raspberry pink suit, the jacket of which had a contrasting pocket and collar of pink velvet. She accessorized her ensemble with a choker of pearls and gemstones. Her hair was clipped a bit shorter than it has been in recent photographs and her makeup, with the subtle lipstick and the smoky eyeshadow, had seemingly been applied with all of those cameras in mind. She wore kitten heel black pumps and carried a small black envelope-style handbag.  Camilla was presented with a bouquet of flowers — mostly roses, hydrangeas, peonies and calla lilies, all in various shades of pink and red — by 5-year-old Katherine Beaumont, whose father is British and whose mother is American. She skipped a day of kindergarten for the occasion and with only a few moments of practice before the royal arrival, performed her ceremonial duties without incident. In the manner of an old married couple, the Prince of Wales walked slightly ahead of his wife as he quietly inspected the half-finished stonework and the temporary topiaries. He looked utterly captivated — by the garden, not his wife, whom he never once publicly touched. In response to an inquiry shouted from the press scrum, His Royal Highness noted that "it was really moving." Her Royal Highness did not respond.  When the heavy green drapery was drawn back from the stone to be dedicated, he made no remarks. Afterward, in a private reception for the garden's reporters, the prince said, "Both our nations have been united by grief and strengthened by the support we have given each other." Even in her absolute silence, Camilla seemed to compel the crowd. "I was a Diana fan," said Doreen Howart, a Briton who divides her time between New York and Brighton. "She was very nice and attractive. I also like Camilla, but Diana is a hard act to follow." Valeria Giannini, a born and raised New Yorker — and admitted Anglophile — noted that Camilla "has a nice style about her. It's more elegant and understated. She makes him happy. We all deserve to be happy." November 2, 2005  CHARLES, CAMILLA: BIG SPLASH IN BIG APPLE By Stephen M. Silverman Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, began their eight-day "Getting to Know You" tour of the U.S. on Tuesday with a visit to Manhattan's Ground Zero and the dedication of a British Memorial Garden to honor victims of 9/11. "Both my wife and I were profoundly moved by what we saw," the prince said about their visit to the site of the former World Trade Center, where the two spent about 10 minutes studying the mementos in tribute to the 2,749 victims of the tragedy, including 67 Britons. "Not just by the scale of the outrage but the deeply distressing individual stories of heroism and of loss," Charles said, according to reports. "Our hearts go out to you today as they did on that dreadful day. Both our nations have been united by grief and strengthened by the support we have given one another." New York Gov. George Pataki then escorted them to Hanover Square, a narrow triangular park near Wall Street and the former towers. After being presented with a bouquet of flowers by a little girl in a tartan dress, the royal couple greeted dignitaries and then strolled around the temporary plantings before tugging at either end of a dark green drape to unveil the center stone, embossed with the crest of the Prince of Wales. The prince was making his first official visit to the United States since 1994, when he came with the late Princess Diana. The day played out with Charles's visit to the United Nations, where he met Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Camilla then joined him for an all-star reception at the Museum of Modern Art, where the New York Post said of Camilla's "dowdy" blue-velvet dress: "Queen Camilla is New York's Frump Tower." Still, many of the paper's columnists found her extremely gracious. Wednesday, Charles and Camilla are off to the White House, for a formal dinner with President and Mrs. Bush. November 2, 2005  CHARLES AND CAMILLA IN LOW-KEY U.S. DEBUT By Joyce Wadler and Christopher Mason Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, co-stars in the longest-running British entertainment since "Upstairs Downstairs" and now one that the children can finally be permitted to watch, began a week's visit to the United States in New York yesterday, their first official overseas tour since their marriage last April. Billed by the British government as an opportunity for the two countries to affirm their "common bonds and shared tradition," the couple's visit began yesterday with a morning trip to ground zero. Later, with the prince wearing a poppy, the British symbol for Remembrance Day, in his lapel, the couple unveiled a cornerstone at what is to be the British Memorial Garden, in Hanover Square, and met privately with the families of some of the 67 Britons killed in the attacks of Sept. 11. "It was terribly, terribly moving," the duchess said later that evening at a reception at the Museum of Modern Art. "I think they're terribly glad to have the garden." Did she talk with them about their experience? "Yes, I always get straight to the point, which I probably shouldn't." Is there a tabloid reporter alive who does not know the love story of the Prince of Wales and the woman known for a long time as Mrs. Parker Bowles, the world's most famous backstreet girl? He wore her gift of cufflinks on his honeymoon with Princess Diana, made vivid declarations of love over unsecured phone lines and admitted adultery on TV. When the prince and Mrs. Bowles married, the queen did not attend the civil ceremony, although she did have someone sketch them up a nice coat of arms. Now, those in-law troubles seem to be patched up: A week ago Elizabeth II lent Camilla a tiara to wear at a state banquet for the king and queen of Norway - not one the queen is believed to have ever worn, mind you, but something made for Queen Mary in 1911, sort of the royal equivalent of your mother-in-law letting you wear her second-best mink. Still, one cannot say the second wife's image problems are over. The couple's weeklong visit includes a White House dinner, a stop in New Orleans and meetings with organic farmers, a particular interest of the prince, in San Francisco. There the couple will also attend the musical revue "Beach Blanket Babylon," inspired by the collective works of Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. But since this is, after all, a marketing tour for Britain, the big question remains: How is the 58-year-old duchess, who has been viewed as an ungainly frump throughout her long liaison with the prince, looking these days? This was a hard question to determine, for those in the small, undemonstrative crowd at Photo Op No. 1, the World Trade Center, had to squint through a chain link fence to try to see the duchess, who was outfitted as conspicuously as possible in a brilliant fuchsia suit with a matching velvet collar. She had several strings of pearls around her neck, carried a black rectangular clutch bag and - this is most important - wore black stilettos, a sign, when worn by a middle-aged woman, that she is really, really trying. (The duchess's advance woman, who clearly knows her job, was dressed in brown.) A larger and more enthusiastic crowd was able to get a closer look when the couple stepped out of their black stretch Cadillac at Hanover Square. There the duchess beamed and performed a royal wave that appeared to have been practiced to perfection. "Ma'am, how does it feel to be in America?" a photographer bellowed, for gone are those journalistic glory days when a tabloid photographer could, and did, shout, "Queenie! Give us some leg!" The duchess replied, "Very good," grinning, for really what else is there to say? A young woman outside the visitors' gate at the United Nations later in the day was far less gracious than the photographer. She carried a placard with a large picture of the late Princess of Wales with a sign, reading, "Camilla, you are not Diana." The duchess, who did not accompany her husband to the U.N., was not there to see it. Things were rather better at the cocktail reception later in the evening, where 300 of New York's finest and richest turned out. The duchess wore a triple-strand pearl choker, which was appropriate, as it featured a square-cut emerald that could have choked a horse. Her calf-length gown had a lace and pearl trimmed bodice, which revealed prominent décolletage - one area in which Diana could never compete. Her blond hair was stiffly coiffed with bangs worn so long over her eyes that she had to look sideways to see who was talking to her. Everyone wanted to talk to her, though. The moment the duchess walked upstairs, she was button holed by Yoko Ono, who was wearing a huge black lace hat. A good many in the crowd ended up peering around that hat, for every time the duchess smiled and nodded - a sign, for those in the know, that the audience is finito - Ms. Ono, herself a kind of royalty, kept talking. The guests, many of whom gawped satisfyingly at the duchess, included David Rockefeller, Ron Lauder, Henry Kravis, Sting, Diane von Furstenberg and Barry Diller, Michael Feinstein and Elaine Stritch, Paula Zahn, and Princess Firyal of Jordan. The hors d'oeuvres included deviled quail eggs and chicken with black truffles. There was, of course, Champagne. The prince in his brief remarks called Camilla "my darling wife." It might have been better had the Curtis High School Jazz Ensemble of Staten Island not performed "My Funny Valentine" shortly before the duchess' arrival. But then, one can't have everything, can one? Anthony Ramirez and Warren Hoge contributed reporting for this article. November 2, 2005  PRINCE CHARLES, CAMILLA ARRIVE IN NEW YORK Prince Charles, Camilla Arrive in New York for Weeklong Tour of U.S.; First Stop Is Ground Zero. By Jill Lawless, Associated Press Writer As published on the web sites of most major networks and in regional, national and international newspapers  Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, paid tribute to victims of the Sept. 11 attacks Tuesday as they began a weeklong tour of the United States a trip the British press predicted would cause little excitement among Americans. After arriving in New York City on a private chartered jet, the couple traveled by limousine to Ground Zero for a tour of the site. The couple then went to nearby Hanover Square to unveil a memorial park to the 67 Britons who died when the hijacked jets slammed into the World Trade Center. They walked around to greet some of the several hundred well-wishers and onlookers who gathered behind barricades at the square. Camilla seemed relaxed, smiling broadly as she accepted a bouquet of flowers from a small girl. The Duchess of Cornwall, who has been trying to project a more glamorous image, wore a dark rose Italian wool crepe jacket and dress with velvet chiffon trim.  Speaking at reception for relatives of the British Sept. 11 victims and supporters of the memorial garden project, Prince Charles said he and his wife had been "profoundly moved" by their trip to Ground Zero, "not just the scale of the outrage but the deeply distressing individual stories of heroism and of loss." "Our hearts go out to you today as they did on that dreadful today," said Charles, who met privately with families before the unveiling ceremony. Referring to the July 7 bombings of London's transit system that killed 52 people along with the four suicide attackers, he said "both our nations have been united by grief and strengthened by the support we have given each other." The tour, which is designed to celebrate ties between Britain and America and promote Charles' environmentalist causes, is the first official overseas trip for the 56-year-old heir to the throne and his wife since they married in April. British media, however, predicted the couple would fail to capture the attention of Americans in the same way as Charles' 1985 official visit when a radiant Princess Diana danced with John Travolta at a White House dinner. Papers in London took note of a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, which found 59 percent of Americans surveyed saying they were "not at all interested" in the visit, 22 percent were "not too interested," 13 percent were "somewhat interested" and 6 percent were "very interested." Nineteen percent said they would like to meet Charles and Camilla in person, compared to 31 percent who, in an ABC News/Washington Post poll in 1985, said they would like to meet Charles and Diana. Gallup interviewed 1,008 people 18 and older in the United States by telephone on Oct. 21-23. Gallup said the survey had a sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. "The trip has been dismissed as a 'royal bore' by Americans," The Daily Mail newspaper said Tuesday, quoting a headline in USA Today. At Hanover Square named for King George I of Hanover a cadre of law enforcement officers stood near a line of police barricades and hundreds of people gathered, many holding banners and cameras, eager to take snapshots or perhaps shake hands with the royal couple. "I've been following this man since I was in grade school in Minnesota. I wrote papers about him," Thomas Rex Campbell, a writer who grew up in White Bear Lake, Minn., said of Prince Charles. "I very much admire him for his breadth of vision on the world. He's interested in everything from farming to classical architecture. He's the best-educated Prince of Wales ever." The memorial garden, which is due to be completed next summer, is designed as a green corner of Britain in Manhattan, with topiary trees, boxwood hedges and a sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor. Later Tuesday, Charles and Camilla were to attend a reception at the Museum of Modern Art that Charles' office said was a chance for the couple "to meet a good cross-section of interesting and influential New Yorkers." Guests invited to enjoy champagne and organic canapes with the couple included Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg, Sting, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and actress Kim Cattral. The prince and duchess also were to meet with hurricane victims in New Orleans, homeless people in San Francisco and President Bush at the White House. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday that Bush was open to discussing any topic with Charles, stressing it was primarily a social visit. Bush "looks forward to the visit. He's glad to talk about whatever issues Prince Charles may want to bring up," McClellan said. It is also part of a careful palace plan to win acceptance for the duchess, long reviled in the British press and among Diana-philes as the woman who broke up the royal romance. "There were three of us in that marriage," Diana told a television reporter in 1995. Charles and Diana divorced in 1996; Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris the following year. Associated Press Writer Verena Dobnik in New York contributed to this report. November 2, 2005  ROYAL COUPLE START TOUR WITH TRIBUTE AT GROUND ZERO By Caroline Davies in New York  The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall began their eight-day US tour yesterday by paying tribute to the victims of the September 11 atrocity, laying flowers at Ground Zero to commemorate the 2,749 who lost their lives there. They stood in silence, staring through the metal fence surrounding the World Trade Centre site, as a Union flag pulled from the rubble fluttered above the memorial wall. The royal couple then viewed the personal mementoes left by relatives of those who perished, including posies of flowers and the badges and insignia of the New York firemen who gave their lives trying to rescue others. The duchess laid a bouquet of yellow and orange orchids, roses and lilies at the foot of the wall, along with a hand-written card from the prince which read: "In enduring memory of our shared grief." Sixty-seven Britons died on September 11 2001, the highest toll of any nationality other than American. The royal couple were 40 minutes late for what was the first engagement of their first overseas tour, due to a combination of a strong headwind affecting their flight and Manhattan traffic. After Ground Zero they headed to the British Memorial Garden, three blocks away. A crowd of 500 gathered to watch the couple and the duchess, wearing a fuchsia pink Italian wool crepe jacket and dress with velvet and chiffon trim, looked slightly nervous as she walked towards one side of the street to shake hands while her husband walked to the other side. In the garden, a "gift to New York" from Britain and a place of reflection for relatives of the British dead, there were 67 finials on top of a memorial railing to represent each of the victims. Work on the garden, a living memorial designed to be a place of solitude, comfort and reflection, began in May this year and should be complete by next summer. It is designed to be "a truly British garden". The prince, an avid gardener, is patron of the project. Its cynosure will be a simple 20ft tall, black granite sculpture, entitled Unity, designed by the Turner Prize-winning sculptor Anish Kapoor. The royal couple unveiled a foundation stone to dedicate the garden, then met the families of 30 of the British victims. The garden was designed by the renowned British landscape architects Julian and Isabel Bannerman, who are known for their work on the prince's garden at Highgrove. The Princess Royal launched the fund-raising for the garden in April 2003 with the donation of "heirloom seeds" from the royal gardens and Hampton Court Palace and other palaces, including seeds of lupins and marigolds, traditional flowers whose popularity dates back to Henry VIII and William III. The prince and duchess arrived in New York from RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire, accompanied by an entourage of 16, including a hairdresser, make-up artist and assistant private secretary for the duchess. The tour has attracted luke-warm interest generally across America, where an eve-of-visit poll indicated that eight out of 10 Americans did not care about the visit, with only 19 per cent wanting to meet the couple and one in three saying that they would rather meet Prince William or Prince Harry instead. Clarence House aides launched a high profile campaign to woo the US before the tour, with the prince giving a rare interview on the cable television network CBS. The royal couple were also due to attend a reception at New York's Museum of Modern Art. November 2, 2005  BOWLES 'EM OVER Camilla wows city in first visit to U.S. as Charles' wife By Derek Rose and Andra Varin, Daily News Staff Writers Once reviled as "The Rottweiler," the former Camilla Parker Bowles ventured into Diana territory yesterday - and charmed New Yorkers. "I think she looks better in person," said Rhonda Sherwin, 49. "She seems very sophisticated, very classy." The Duchess of Cornwall, as Camilla is now known, is on her first official U.S. trip with her new husband, Britain's Prince Charles. After a somber visit to Ground Zero, the royal couple dedicated a center stone for the new British Memorial Garden at Hanover Square in lower Manhattan, which will honor the 67 British victims of 9/11. The late Princess Diana was especially beloved in the U.S., but her ex-husband and the woman she blamed for ruining her marriage were greeted by a loud cheer from the small crowd that had gathered in Hanover Square. "We were impressed that he took the time to come to New York," said Staten Island resident Gary Spagnoli, 50. Grace Fonseca, 28, was thrilled to shake Prince Charles' hand and to catch a glimpse of his new wife. "She's much prettier than I thought." Wearing a dark rose suit, a pearl necklace and a radiant smile, Camilla seemed at ease as she greeted well-wishers. The prince and the duchess later met with about 30 relatives of Britons killed in the Sept.11 attacks. Later, the prince met with UN chief Kofi Annan. Then the royal couple headed to a reception at the Museum of Modern Art, where Camilla appeared in a navy Antony Price cocktail dress with cream chiffon trim and a three-strand pearl choker with a spectacular aqua stone. "My darling wife and I are so pleased to be with you all and to be in America to celebrate these longstanding and very special links between our two countries," Charles said. The royal couple hobnobbed with guests including Donald Trump, Sting, Yoko Ono, Matthew Modine, Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer and Deborah Norville. But it was a far cry from the glamour of 1985, when Princess Diana danced with John Travolta at the White House. The couple's eight-day visit, which includes stops in Washington and San Francisco, is designed to promote Anglo-American friendship - and to sell the public on Camilla as Charles' new wife and consort. But the high stakes didn't seem to faze the new duchess. "She was wonderful," said Diana Collins, an official with the British Memorial Garden Trust. "She was extremely pleasant, and seemed to be very comfortable and relaxed."  FOR PRINCE CHARLES, THE CITY'S A MATTER OF GROWING INTEREST (An extract from the New York Daily News' 'Lowdown' column) "It's nice to see a Gleditsia," the Prince of Wales told New York Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe yesterday, using the Latin term for honey locust tree as he toured the British Memorial Garden in Hanover Square, three blocks from Ground Zero. Benepe assured me the future King of England made no attempt to speak to the plant. Later on, after dedicating the tiny garden that commemorates the 67 British victims of 9/11, the Prince and his bride, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, stepped across the street into India House Club to shmooze with Brits, various ex-pats and a few Yanks like me. To fellow gardening enthusiast Richard Astor, whose great-great-grandfather built the grandly appointed India House as his private residence in the 19th century, the Prince lamented the scarcity of yew trees. Camilla - who looked relaxed and happy in a bright red suit - told Sir Harold and Lady Evans (better known around these parts as Harry Evans and Tina Brown) that she recalled Brown's visit to the Parker-Bowles house in Wiltshire when Brown was editor of Tatler. "I can't believe it's so long ago," she said. November 1, 2005  A SPEECH BY HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES AT THE BRITISH MEMORIAL GARDEN From HRH The Prince of Wales' web site at www.princeofwales.gov.uk Click here for the full transcript of HRH The Prince of Wales' speech at the reception following his and the Duchess of Cornwall's visit to the British Memorial Garden site on the first day of their Royal Tour, 2005. November 1, 2005  CHARLES AND CAMILLA TO GO STRAIGHT TO GROUND ZERO From an article by Times Online and agencies The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall headed straight to Ground Zero in Manhattan after they stepped onto US soil on their first foreign visit together. The chartered plane carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, and their 16-strong entourage, touched down in fine weather at New York's JFK airport, after leaving RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire at 9am. Camilla, who has been trying to project a more glamorous image, was wearing a red Italian wool crepe jacket and dress, with velvet chiffon trim by designer Roy Allen. At Ground Zero, their first ever official duty on foreign soil, they were met by New York Governor George Pataki, British Consul General Sir Phillip Thomas and Kenneth Ringler, Executive Director of the Port Authority which owns the World Trade Centre site. They paid an emotional visit to the Family Room, a small room set aside for the relatives of those killed and open to them 12 hours a day, seven days a week. The walls are plastered in personal mementos, photographs, birthday cards and tributes from military services around the world. A model of the twin towers is enshrined under a white arch topped with a dove. There are seats inside for the bereaved to sit and grieve and several windows overlooking the site. “For so many this is their graveyard,” a Port Authority spokesperson said. Charles and Camilla appeared relaxed as they studied various mementos adorning a memorial outside. The Duchess was shown a British Transport Police badge which sat among scores of insignias and flags in tribute. Flying high above the memorial against brilliant blue skies was a Union Jack flag recovered from the rubble. Charles and Camilla were shown a framed picture of when the flag was last flown, on July 10, the day Britain remembered the victims of the London bombings with a moment of silence. At the British Memorial Garden, less than a mile away, the couple were given a tour of the garden and unveiled a dedication stone in memory of the British victims of September 11th. The two were greeted by dozens of well-wishers, some of whom waved Union flags and cheered. The couple also paused briefly to talk to some of the specially-invited family members of those killed in the terrorist attack. The Duchess also accepted flowers from five-year-old New Yorker Katherine Beaumont. The inscription on memorial stone - made of Morayshire stone - reads: “This stone was laid on 1 November 2005 by the patron of this garden, the Prince of Wales.” The stone also bears the Prince’s crest where they will unveil a stone dedicated to the 67 Britons killed when hijacked jets crashed into the twin towers. They will later meet United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and attend a reception at the Museum of Modern Art. The couple will attend some 22 events during the whirlwind eight-day tour. Tomorrow Charles and Camilla will dine with President Bush at the White House in Washington before jetting south for a brief stop in hurricane ravaged New Orleans, en route to San Francisco. Aides are hoping that the Duchess can charm the American public, traditionally seen as pro-Diana, as she undertakes her inaugural royal tour. The late Princess of Wales enchanted American society when she danced with Hollywood actor John Travolta at a White House gala dinner, almost 20 years ago to the day. So far, the US media have largely ignored the impending royal tour. One poll showed that 81 per cent of Americans are not remotely interested in the couple and less than one in five wants to meet them. But the tide could easily turn when they step out together amid a flurry of regal glamour. The British Memorial Garden was designed by the British landscape architects Julian and Isabel Bannerman, known for their work on Charles’ own garden at Highgrove, at a cost of £3.6 million. The garden, which is due to be completed next summer, is designed as a green corner of Britain in Manhattan, with topiary trees, boxwood hedges and a central sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor. The first seeds to be planted were delivered by the Princess Royal two years ago and were taken from royal palaces in Britain. Camilla Hellman, president of the garden’s trust, said: "We are delighted and excited by their Royal Highness’s upcoming visit to our garden-in-progress." Among those attending the brief dedication ceremony are Sir Evelyn and Lady Rothschild, Eileen Guggenheim, Lord Colin Campbell, Sir Harold Evans and his wife Tina Brown, the former Tatler editor, who is writing a biography about Diana. November 1, 2005  ROYAL COUPLE GREETED WARMLY An extract from a CBS/AP report It wasn't the frenzy that welcomed Prince Charles 20 years ago on a U.S. tour that saw his radiant wife, the late Princess Diana, but the Prince and his current wife, Camilla, received an enthusiastic reception at the beginning of their U.S. tour. Several hundred onlookers who gathered at ground zero to see the royal couple were supportive. "He really does care about people, but a lot of people think, 'Oh, he's a prince, what does he know about us, what does he care?"' said Nancy Hodl, a 59-year-old retired secretary from New Jersey. Under unseasonably balmy November sunshine, small but enthusiastic crowds greeted the couple as they began their weeklong U.S. trip Tuesday by paying tribute to victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano visiting the site was the first step on a trip designed to strengthen a transatlantic bond between the two countries. "Both our nations have been united by grief and strengthened by the support we have given each other," the prince said at a reception for supporters of a memorial garden for the 67 Britons who died when the hijacked jets slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center. Charles later attended a roundtable at the United Nations and appealed to business leaders to help millions of young people find jobs. He and Camilla later attended a celebrity-studded reception at the Museum of Modern Art. The couple began their U.S. tour by traveling by limousine from their chartered jet to ground zero, the vast site where the World Trade Center once stood. They viewed the site and visited a room full of mementos left by families of the victims. The prince said he and his wife were "profoundly moved by what we saw — not just the scale of the outrage but the deeply distressing individual stories of heroism and of loss." At nearby Hanover Square, the couple unveiled the cornerstone to the memorial garden. They walked around to greet some of the several hundred well-wishers and onlookers who gathered behind barricades at the square, named for King George I of Hanover. The garden, due to be completed next summer, is designed as a green corner of Britain in Manhattan, with topiary trees, boxwood hedges and a sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor. Alexandra Clarke, a Briton whose daughter Suria died on Sept. 11, said the prince was "quietly and personally very kind" to families of the victims. "They're both very relaxed people," said Clarke, who met the couple at a private reception for British victims' relatives. "They were really genuinely interested in hearing the stories that people had to tell." The duchess seemed at ease, smiling broadly as she accepted a bouquet of flowers from a 5-year-old girl. Camilla, who has been trying to project a more glamorous image, wore a dark rose Italian wool crepe jacket and dress with velvet chiffon trim by designer Roy Allen. November 1, 2005 AMERICA'S ROYAL WATCHERS GATHER FOR FIRST US APPEARANCE OF CHARLES AND CAMILLA By Verena Dobnik, Associated Press Writer For Charles and Camilla, this was The Moment: Their first official appearance in the American public eye, together. A burst of fuchsia greeted guests as the Duchess of Cornwall, bright in her dress and jacket, stepped into a Manhattan garden that's a memorial to the 67 Britons who died on a sunny September day in 2001. This day in the November sunshine was festive _ the couple's first visit to a country whose people had once embraced the late Princess Diana as the royalty some wished they had. It was inevitable: Charles and Camilla vs. Charles and Diana _ in America. "I look up to this royalty because they're down to earth," said Michele Balogh, 40, an actor and warehouse worker from New Jersey who showed up in Hanover Square in her sweatsuit to see the royals. "Diana had a good sense of humor. She cared about people, and especially about people with problems like AIDS. Camilla is very much like her that way." Camilla needs no introduction. For years, her face greeted Americans at grocery checkouts and newsstands, on tabloid covers. As Prince Charles' longtime lover, she was the star of juicy gossip that hardly elevated her to the status enjoyed by Diana. The Princess of Wales was America's glamorous darling who became a near-icon upon her 1997 death. But things have changed for Charles' 58-year-old wife: Born a commoner, she's now a high-profile member of the British royal family, although her title is duchess, not princess, and there are questions as to whether she would be named queen if the Prince of Wales became king. That subtext was moot as hundreds of people from around the country welcomed "Their Royal Highnesses" to the United States, turning out Tuesday in a lower Manhattan square for their first official overseas trip since they married in April. From behind police barricades, the crowd was eager to catch even a glimpse of them. They held up banners and clutched cameras, hoping to snap a picture of Charles and Camilla at the unveiling of a memorial stone in the garden to be completed next year. Blocks from ground zero near Wall Street, the $6.5 British Memorial Garden stands "where New York was born," said city Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. The Dutch East India Company established a colony here in the early 1600s that then came under British rule. And Hanover Square, named after 18th-century British king George I of Hanover, came to dominate New York's commerce and culture. The British Memorial Garden Trust, which is financing the project with private, corporate and foundation funds, was launched in 2003 by Princess Anne. The lush green garden will bear the names of the 67 terrorism victims, with topiary trees and boxwood hedges winding past stone paths, benches and a water rill. As she arrived and accepted flowers from a 5-year-old girl, Camilla looked relaxed, smiling broadly. After the dedication, she and Charles strolled around to greet well-wishers and onlookers. New York is the first stop on the royal couple's weeklong tour, which will also take them to the White House. Diana visited the White House in 1985 on an official U.S. tour with Charles, dancing with film star John Travolta at a much-photographed dinner hosted by President Reagan. But many were willing to let Camilla have her chance to shine, while keeping their eyes on Charles too. "I'm watching to see who Camilla attracts in America," said Balogh, the Diana fan. "I think she'll be successful." November 1, 2005  "OUR HEARTS GO OUT TO YOU" By Maria Puente, USA Today Britain's Prince Charles and his new wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, started their eight-day American tour in New York on Tuesday with a visit to Ground Zero. They then inaugurated the nearby British Memorial Garden in Hanover Square and met with families of some of the 67 British victims of 9/11. Charles told the families that the couple were "profoundly moved" by their trip to the World Trade Center site. "Our hearts go out to you today as they did on that dreadful day." Camilla accepted a bouquet from a child and joined Charles in greeting some of several hundred onlookers at the garden. Later, Charles met with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and appealed to business leaders to help millions of young people find jobs. The day ended at a Museum of Modern Art reception, where the couple mingled with guests such as Donald Trump, Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg, Elton John, Sting, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sex and the City actress Sarah Jessica Parker. The couple also will visit Washington, D.C., San Francisco and, in a hastily added event, will fly to New Orleans Friday to meet with Hurricane Katrina victims and relief workers. November 1, 2005  CHARLES, CAMILLA VIEW NEW YORK'S 9/11 SITES By Larry Fine, Reuters Britain's Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, began an eight-day U.S. trip with a visit to Manhattan's Ground Zero and the dedication of the British Memorial Garden to honor victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. After a private tour of the razed site of the World Trade Center's twin towers, the royals spent 10 minutes of reflection among mementos left to honor those who died at the "family room," reserved for relations of victims of the attacks. Sixty-seven Britons were killed in the hijacked airplane attacks that brought the twin towers down, killing 2,749 office workers, rescuers and others. Hundreds of lunch-hour onlookers applauded when a motorcade delivered the royal couple and New York Gov. George Pataki to Hanover Square, a narrow triangular park nestled among high-rise office buildings in downtown Manhattan. "This is really exciting," said Deborah Leigh, a downtown office worker. "I think it's great they were able to come here for the dedication. That was awesome." The prince was making his first official visit to the United States since 1994, when he came with the late Princess Diana. Charles and Camilla stepped out of a black limousine and greeted the crowd before walking into the memorial garden. After being presented with a bouquet of flowers by a little girl in a tartan dress, they greeted dignitaries and then strolled around the temporary plantings before tugging at either end of a dark green drape to unveil the center stone, embossed with the crest of the Prince of Wales. BRITISH GARDEN The garden is expected to cost about $6.5 million to build with British stone and ironworks. After the unveiling, Charles and Camilla crossed the street into the India House, a private club, to meet with 150 guests and 30 family members of British victims of 9/11. "Both my wife and I were profoundly moved by what we saw," the prince said about their visit to Ground Zero. "Not just by the scale of the outrage but the deeply distressing individual stories of heroism and of loss. "Our hearts go out to you today as they did on that dreadful day. Both our nations have been united by grief and strengthened by the support we have given one another." Alexandra Clarke, chair of a Sept. 11 families group in Britain, whose daughter Suria, 30, was killed in the attacks, praised the prince for his support. "Prince Charles has been behind us and with us right from the beginning," she said. "He has been quietly and personally very kind to families of Sept. 11 victims in the U.K. "They're both very relaxed people," she said of the royal couple. "They were genuinely interested in hearing the stories people had to tell. We were talking, they were listening." Charles went on to visit the United Nations, where he met Secretary-General Kofi Annan and participated in a discussion promoting jobs for young people as a way to spur global development, an issue he said he had been interested in for the past decade. Later, the English royalty were to be honored at a reception at the Museum of Modern Art, where invited guests included Sir Elton John, actors Robert De Niro, Catherine Zeta Jones, Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker and comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Charles and Camilla are to have lunch and dinner on Wednesday at the White House. On Friday, they plan to visit New Orleans, ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, before continuing on to San Francisco. (Additional reporting by Irwin Arieff at United Nations) September 12, 2005 SOPRANO SINGS AT 9/11 MEMORIAL A Welsh soprano has sung at a commemorative concert for the 67 British victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America on Sunday. The New York event, featuring Rachel Schutz from Cardiff, was organised by the British Memorial Garden Trust.  The trust is building a commemorative garden in Lower Manhattan for the British people who died four years ago. It is currently appealing for people to sponsor stones representing each Welsh county at the site. Ms Schutz, who is studying music at the City University of New York, sang at Sunday's free concert at 100 Old Slip in Lower Manhattan. "I am honoured they asked me to do it," said the 20-year-old from Creigiau, south Wales, whose father is American. "It is a very nice thing Britain is doing to remember the people they lost." Other performers at the concert included the Oxford Alternatives choir and New York Scottish Pipes and Drums. It was part of a series of September concerts which aimed to bring communities together across the city on the fourth anniversary of the attacks. 'Welsh slate' The British memorial garden, which is being built on a three-quarters-of-an-acre site near Ground Zero, is due to be completed in spring 2006. It will feature Welsh slate, and a daffodil will be included as one of four symbols represented on its railings. The garden should be completed in spring 2006. Charles Wolf, whose Swansea-born wife Katherine died in the attacks, said the garden was being created "very tastefully". "Amongst all the challenges, it is beautiful how the garden has happened," he said. "It am very proud they have pulled it off - it is amazing. It is a very worthwhile thing, and there are no politics in it. It is totally separate to other memorials in New York, and is being done right and tastefully." Work on the garden, which will feature elements of British landscape architecture including topiaries, yew trees and boxwood hedges, began in May. Organisers are appealing for people to sponsor the garden's county stones at $2,500 (£1,358), or pavers at $500 (£272). August 17, 2005  9/11 ANNUAL SEPTEMBER CONCERTS from the New York Post, Page Six, by Cindy Adams PAY attention. A must event that will fill the skies with music is 9/11's an nual September concert. Per project coordinator Veronica Kelly, top cop Ray Kelly's wife: "The goal, with musicians of all backgrounds, ages, colors and genres, is to bring people together, reaffirm our hope for peace, and celebrate life and our universal humanity." Last year 900 musicians pitched into 100 N.Y.C. concert sites with sister cities Boulder, Colo.; Boynton Beach, Fla.; Knoxville, Tenn.; even Kobe, Japan, participating. Rules are: all music and musicians — hip-hop to pop-rock to classical — treated equally, arenas to design and organize their own programs, everybody and everything including venue, workers and admissions to be free of charge. This Sept. 11, noon to 7 p.m., performances will ring out around the city. Outdoor locations include such parks as: Fort Tryon, Morningside, Straus, Central, Bryant, Battery, Madison Square, Union Square, Washington Square, Tompkins Square, Greeley Square, Herald Square, Battery Park City, Clove Lakes (Staten Island), Lincoln Center Plaza, Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, Public Library and British Memorial Garden. The number of indoor venues can be accessed by logging onto septemberconcert.org. May 31st, 2005 The Globe and Mail THE CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW Extracts from an article by Elizabeth Renzetti, in London The ticket scalpers, or touts as they're called here, line the street outside the Sloane Square tube station, blinking in the bright sunshine. They look out of place in one of London's ritziest neighbourhoods. They look, in fact, as though they've all slept on a bus and roused themselves with a pint or two. But they know the laws of economics, and here is a rare commodity to be traded on the black market. "Tickets to the flower show," they chant to the men and women streaming past, "buy or sell. Buy or sell!" But the masses, sensibly clad in canvas or cotton, and ignorant of scalping except as an unfortunate historical episode in the colonies, ignore them completely. The Chelsea Flower Show, now in its 83rd year, is the equivalent of the FA Cup and the Glastonbury pop festival slapped together, drained of beer and Ecstasy, and wrapped in a floral skirt. Almost 160,000 people will visit over five days (extended, for the first time this year, from four days in an effort to dilute the crowds). On the final day, flower fans - I think the collective noun is a savage of gardeners - descend like carrion-starved vultures as the plants go on sale .............. ............At another booth nearby, Camilla Hellman is explaining her project, The British Memorial Garden, which will commemorate the 67 British victims of the World Trade Center attacks. Just two weeks earlier, ground was broken for the garden in Hanover Square, in lower Manhattan. A sculpture by Anish Kapoor - a hollowed-out chamber of black granite - will anchor the garden, surrounded by Scottish paving stones, native English plants and boxwood hedges. "Anyone who was there at the time was tremendously affected and wanted to do something to show that we came through it together," Hellman says. "And gardens have a remarkable power - they strengthen you and replenish you." May 24-28th, 2005  BRITISH MEMORIAL GARDEN  This exhibit demonstrates how a British garden, which will honour British victims of 9/11, has been designed to meet the demands of New York City, such as colder winters, warmer summers and pedestrian traffic. A team of professionals has been working together for over two years developing plans by British landscape architects Julian and Isabel Bannerman. This exhibition provides an idea of what the completed British Memorial Garden will look like. The British Memorial Garden is being built to honour the 67 British victims of the World Trade Centre attacks and to celebrate the long-standing friendship between the United States and United Kingdom. The garden will be located in Lower Manhattan, three blocks from Ground Zero. May 14, 2005  BRITISH MEMORIAL GARDEN By Judith Kampfner in New York, NY  While debate continues over what will be built at Ground Zero, work has started this week on the construction of a new Memorial park the size of a city block in the historic Wall St neighborhood. It is dedicated to the 67 British victims who died on sept 11th. Judith Kampfner reports from the ground breaking ceremony. REPORTER: Adrian Benepe, Commissioner of Parks and Recreation, is used to wielding a shovel but today he’s flanked by a long haired British Earl and women in large hats. He is reading from a Dylan Thomas poem about nature’s healing power. REPORTER: The three quarters of an acre site will be torn apart from the paving stones upwards. There will be no standard Parks Department fixtures because every element from benches to lamps will be made by craftsmen incorporating British materials. BENEPE: It is a rather undistinguished space right now and it will become one of the most spectacular parks in the city when it is done. There is no park anywhere in the city which has this level of talent working on its design. REPORTER: Stonemason Simon Verity will interlock 240 paving flagstones which will become the base of this British Memorial Garden. He’ll weave two colors of stone have been brought from the wilds of Scotland, to create a poetic representation of the map of the British Isles. REPORTER: Verity’s workshop is at the side of St John the Divine Cathedral. For ten years, he worked on stone blocks around the main church door. For the British garden he has is hand carving inscriptions of each of the 95 counties of England. The lettering is wild and the background designs convey his ideas about the landscape.Wavy wheatfields, flamboyant curlicues and wild hedgerows. VERITY: People would say to me.. don’t you get bored carving out this word “ shire” and I say no, each of these is a different shire.” VERITY: As I’m chiseling, I’m thinking of the letter form I’m carving and the extraordinary country I’m from. REPORTER: His hundreds of thousands of hammer blows will mark the hardwearing flagstone for years to come. VERITY: If you put a lot of feeling and energy into it, that will come out. REPORTER: A winding snake of water will splash over the stones down the natural slope of the site of the British Memorial Garden. It’s a modern variant of a curving Welsh stream called a rill. The landscape architects who were chosen to lay out the garden have just worked on a formal design for Prince Charles’ estate. But here they have let their imagination run wild. Topiary sculptures up to sixteen feet high will have whimsical shapes - like ice cream cones and chess figures – Alice in wonderland style. The garden will be anchored by a sculpture from Britain’s celebrated artist Anish Kapoor. Called “Unity”, it’s a shiny black granite monolith symbolizing Anglo American friendship. CAMILLA HELLMAN: Anish Kapoor won our competition for a sculpture REPORTER:Camilla Hellman the driving force behind the garden says the artist has positioned it to reflect light coming in from the East river. HELLMAN: It will be a hollowed out chamber reflecting light with a flame inside. REPORTER: The inventiveness of the park can be seen also in fibre optic lights coming out from boxwood hedges and curving benches and plantings of simple as well as formal flowers. The color scheme is cool whites pinks blues and lavenders staying the same throughout the seasons. HELLMAN: This garden is tradition but with edge, we’re quirky in Britain, we’re eccentric. There’s an eccentricity to this and a personality. REPORTER: Although this is a memorial garden, there’ll be no explicit reference to the World trade bombing but Simon Verity has carved 67 different finials - decorative fence tops - as a tribute to the 67 Britons who died. One supporter of the garden is Charles Wolfe. His wife who was a native of Wales, worked on the 97th floor of Tower One. He said he was thrilled that the park had design integrity. But from his own perspective - WOLFE: It should have had names, but delicately done, not in your face – names and what county they came from but in a situation like this, I leave it to the designers because they have done such a good job. But it’s very personal to me. I have no grave for my wife. REPORTER: Wolfe said he would come down to watch the design take shape and see the garden grow. It’s a gift he said from the Ango American community to New York. The British Memorial Garden is tucked away in area with British roots – aptly called Hanover Square in 1714 after King George 1. Walk down Wall St, take a right on Water St and you’ll come upon it. This oasis in the canyons of financial highrises will officially open next summer. May 13-19, 2005  WORK BEGINS ON DOWNTOWN'S BRITISH MEMORIAL GARDEN By M.L. Liu  Against the sound of jackhammers and machinery, the groundbreaking ceremony for the British Memorial Garden at Hanover Square was held this past Tuesday morning. Adrian Benepe, the city’s Parks Department commissioner, referred to construction going on across the street as a sign that others were invested in the future of Lower Manhattan. He described the garden as a celebration of the friendship and alliance between Great Britain and the United States, saying that it would be “one of the great public spaces, the great public gardens of New York City.” The British Memorial Garden in Hanover Square will also commemorate the 67 British citizens who died in the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Sir Philip Thomas, British Consul-General in New York, and Camilla Hellman, president and executive director of the British Memorial Garden Trust, also spoke at the ceremony. Hellman thanked those present for their support of the garden, which has been in development for over two years and which is scheduled to open next year. Rufus Albemarle, artistic director of the British Memorial Garden Trust, seemed satisfied with the group’s progress so far. “There’s a lot of different sets of difficulties that one has to go through to get a park built,” he said after the ceremony. Asked if he had heard any complaints from local residents about British sculptor Anish Kapoor’s design for a memorial in the garden, Albemarle said, “In any good thing there’s resistance. Are they resisting the fact that there’s art in the park? Or are they resisting because they don’t like the artist? If they understand that it’s a gift to New York City, they would see it in a different light.” A bedsheet with the words “NYC Park for NYC Children” painted on it was tied at some point during the ceremony to the outside of the chain-link fence surrounding Hanover Square, indicating perhaps that there are some who oppose the way this three-quarter acre space will be developed. Kevin Buckley and some other residents of 3 Hanover Square, which adjoins the square, said in telephone interviews that they have not been properly informed about the British Memorial Garden’s development. “I only found out about the garden through doing research on the Internet,” said Buckley. While Buckley praised the idea of the garden, he said the memorial should have been more in keeping with the neighborhood’s historic style. Cindy, who declined to give her last name, and Shane Gritzinger, also residents of 3 Hanover Square, expressed concerns about pedestrian safety and the amount of noise that would be generated by additional construction in front of their building. May 12, 2005  PARKS & RECREATION BREAKS GROUND ON A SYMBOL OF UNITY IN HANOVER SQUARE  Photograph by Malcolm Pinckney On Tuesday, May 10, Parks & Recreation and the British Memorial Garden Trust celebrated the historic ties and long-lasting relationship between Great Britain and America with the groundbreaking ceremony for the British Memorial Garden in Hanover Square. The garden is slated for completion for Spring 2006. Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe was joined by New York’s British Consul-General Sir Philip Thomas, and President of the British Memorial Garden Trust Camilla G. Hellman in announcing the beginning of construction on this $6 million project. Also in attendance at the groundbreaking were New York’s British Deputy Consul General Duncan Taylor, Consul and Chairman of the BMG Trust Patrick Owens, Manhattan Borough Commissioner Bill Castro, Alliance for Downtown New York Chairman Robert Douglas, Commissioner of the Department of Records and Information Services Brian Andersson, and about 50 area residents and project supporters. "We have been anticipating breaking ground on this project since the British Memorial Garden Trust was first established two years ago," said Commissioner Benepe. "Now, we can look forward to admiring the intricate floral array that will decorate this garden." The garden’s designers, renowned British landscape architects Julian and Isabel Bannerman, collaborated on a plan that incorporates elements of modern landscape as well as those of a traditional 17th-century topiary garden. New paving stone and benches; extraordinary topiaries; and an array of colorful flowers including narcissus, daffodils, lilies of the valley, periwinkles, honesty, and money plants are all part of the plan. Sculpture to the Unity of America and Great Britain, created by renowned British artist Anish Kapoor, will serve as a focal point for British and Commonwealth community observances at the southern end of the Hanover Square. The British Memorial Garden and Unity sculpture, which will commemorate the 67 British victims of September 11, were designed to encourage reflection and contemplation. The capital funding campaign for this project was launched in May 2003 when the Trust was founded. The total project budget of approximately $6 million was determined based on the $3 million design and construction estimate, $500,000 towards the Unity sculpture, and $1.5 million for a maintenance endowment. The historic Hanover Square has been one of New York City’s most cherished public spaces since the 1600’s, when the city was under British rule. The name Hanover Square comes from the House of Hanover in honor of the accession of George I, King of Great Britain and Ireland. May 10, 2005  GROUND-BREAKING MOVE AT 'SEPTEMBER 11' MEMORIAL SITE By Victoria Ward, PA, in New York New ground will be broken today at a New York garden being built to commemorate the British victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The British Memorial Garden Trust will hold a ceremony to mark the ground construction phase of the project. The garden, which is less than a mile from ground zero in lower Manhattan, has been under development for more than two years. Camilla Hellman, president of the trust, said: “The ground-breaking will be a historic moment for the British Memorial Garden and all those who have worked so energetically to bring it to this point.” British consul-general Sir Philip Thomas will join New York City officials and representatives at the short ceremony. The garden was designed by renowned British landscape architects Julian and Isabel Bannerman. It will include floral tributes and a sculpture symbolising unity between the British and American people. The building phase, which includes the installation of benches and paving stones and the planting of flowers, shrubs and whimsical topiaries, is expected to take around a year. The park will commemorate the 67 Britons killed in the World Trade Centre attacks as well as celebrate the strong ties between the US and the UK. The first seeds to be planted were delivered by the Princess Royal two years ago and were taken from royal palaces in Britain. The trust describes the park, in Hanover Square, as “a place of remembrance, contemplation and community recreation.” April 26-29, 2005  BRITISH MEMORIAL GARDEN AT HANOVER SQUARE, NYC TO HONOR BRITISH VICTIMS OF 9/11 From www.newyorkled.com 
At the location that this known as Hanover Square, a New York City Park in lower Manhattan, there's to be the future British Memorial Garden which will be a locale celebrating the historic ties linking the United States and the United Kingdom while honoring the 67 British victims of the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks. On May 10th, 2005 there will be the initial groundbreaking for this New Garden: "The Directors of the British Memorial Garden Trust, Inc. have announced that on May 10th they will hold a groundbreaking ceremony at Hanover Square in Lower Manhattan, future home of the new commemorative garden. The ceremony, which will be attended by officials and representatives from the City of New York and the New York Department of Parks & Recreation, will take place at 10:30 a.m." The British Memorial Garden, which has been in development for over two years, is set to begin the site-construction phase of the garden. The building of the park, which includes the laying of new paving stones, the introduction of all new benches and the planting of flowers, shrubs and whimsical topiaries, is scheduled to take approximately a year. “The groundbreaking will be a historic moment for the British Memorial Garden and all those who have worked so energetically to bring it to this point,” said Camilla G. Hellman, president of the British Memorial Garden Trust, Inc. The British Memorial Garden will both commemorate the 67 British victims of the World Trade Center attacks as well as celebrate the historic ties of friendship and unity between the United States and the United Kingdom. Hanover Square is located three blocks from Ground Zero and comprises a triangular area equivalent to three-quarters-of-an-acre. The garden has been designed by the renowned British landscape architects Julian and Isabel Bannerman as a unique blend of a traditional 17th century topiary garden and modern landscape elements. The project will transform one of New York’s most historic squares into a green space, helping in the revitalization of Lower Manhattan. The British Memorial Garden sculpture to Unity by British artist Anish Kapoor will anchor the park, which is a gift to the City and people of New York from the Anglo-American community and its friends. Under the auspices of the British Memorial Garden Trust, Inc., which has the Royal patronage of HRH The Prince of Wales, a fund-raising campaign has been launched to build and support this important international initiative. April 11, 2005 WORK TO BEGIN SOON ON BRITISH MEMORIAL GARDEN 
Seeds from the Prince of Wales' Highgrove estate, stone quarried in Scotland, City of London-style bollards, slate carved in Wales -- such are the elements that will memorialize the 67 Britons lost on September 11, 2001, in Lower Manhattan. They are the carefully chosen pieces that will soon comprise the $6.5 million British Memorial Garden, a "living memorial" and public park to be constructed in the Financial District's Hanover Square starting next month. The garden is the brainchild of Camilla Hellman, an English native who came to New York in the early 1990s and now serves as the president of the British Memorial Garden Trust. Hellman conceived of the idea as a way to honor the lives lost in the World Trade Center disaster and to signify the United Kingdom's commitment to Lower Manhattan's revitalization. "British families will visit the World Trade Center site," Hellman says. "We want them to be able to go to a place nearby to sit and reflect and understand New York, and feel better and feel renewed." Hellman founded the trust in May 2003 and soon after began the search for the garden's future home -- a hunt that ended almost as soon as it began. "We walked through Hanover Square," Hellman recalls. "I felt so comfortable there. It felt right. I knew it would be this treasure." Her sense was more fitting than she knew, considering Hanover's Square's distinct British history. The three-quarter-acre triangular plot was an original waterfront dock in 17th-century New Amsterdam -- renamed "New York" under British rule in 1664. Over the next three decades, landfill pushed the waterfront south and east, creating "Queen Street" (now Pearl Street). Houses were built along the new thoroughfare, including that of New York Mayor (1692-94) Abraham de Peyster. Soon, a city square emerged. It was named "Hanover Square" in 1714 for the accession of George I, Elector of Hanover, to the British throne. The square's British roots were made even more noteworthy in the late 18th century, when the city converted most street names from Anglo to American monikers in honor of the newly established United States. Queen became Pearl Street, Crown became Liberty Street, Duke became Stone Street. Around that time, Hanover Square virtually disappeared, blending into Pearl Street. But in 1830, popular demand returned it to the map - complete with its original, British-inspired name. Plans for the British Memorial Garden will take Hanover Square's heritage to the hilt. For starters, its designers will be Julian and Isabel Bannerman, renowned landscape architects who often work for the British royal family. Married since 1982, the Bannermans have designed the space to resemble a classic British flower garden, built entirely with U.K.-sourced, custom-made elements. Their concept incorporates native British foliage like yew and boxwood hedges, topiaries, and formal flowerbeds, with garden walkways paved in a dark, reflective stone from Caithness, Scotland. A lighter-toned limestone from Morayshire, Scotland, will be carved into a "ribbon of counties" representing the entire United Kingdom. A water rill built from Welsh slate will run through the triangular garden, between benches carved from Portland, Ireland, stone and iron bollards fashioned in London. British victims of 9/11 will be commemorated in the "memorial railing" that will run through the garden, topped by gilded obelisks representing , Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Celebrated British artist Anish Kapoor won a 2004 competition to design the memorial sculpture. He is creating the 20-feet-tall, black granite work entitled "Unity." The monolithic piece will be hollowed in the center and polished to a mirror finish that will reflect light, suggestive of an eternal flame. "It will be a very powerful piece, with a tunnel of light, suggesting unity, strength, and peace," Hellman says. "[His work] makes you feel like you're a part of it." After nearly two years of rousing support and funds, Hellman says the trust is right where it needs to be, having secured Prince Charles as the garden's Royal Patron, hosting a visit by Princess Anne, and exhibiting pieces destined for the garden in London's Grosvenor Square. She and her colleagues at the trust continue to fundraise for the garden's endowment and ongoing-maintenance and are coordinating construction with city agencies and community groups such as the Alliance for Downtown New York and Community Board 1. The garden's groundbreaking is now set for May 2005, with the bulk of the paving scheduled to be done by winter, followed by spring 2006 plantings and the installment of Kapoor's sculpture -- which replaces the 1896 sculpture of de Peyster (to be relocated to City Hall Park). Hellman encourages downtowners to join in the trust's efforts. "We want the community to become involved because it's their garden," she says. "I hope it will become a part of Lower Manhattan life. We are honored to leave a legacy to the city, and to be a living memorial that reflects the relationship between New York and London." April 7, 2005  FERGUSON KICKS OFF TARTAN DAY BY OPENING WALL STREET By Eleanor Cowie Patricia Ferguson, the tourism minister, yesterday opened the American Stock Exchange during her Tartan Week visit to New York. Ms Ferguson rang the bell at 9.30am to start the day's business and later visited a memorial garden being constructed in memory of the 67 British victims of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. The minister, who was celebrating Tartan Day in New York, described the garden as a "fitting tribute" to those who lost their lives. She presented gifts of Scottish stone to William T. Castro, commissioner for New York State parks department, which will be incorporated into the Manhattan garden's design. Ms Ferguson said: "The design of the garden will include limestone from Morayshire and Caithness stone throughout – a symbol of the part Scottish-American communities have played in influencing and shaping New York, and the genuine warmth of feeling that we Scots share with America." Designed by British architects Isabel and Julian Bannerman, the garden also includes carvings and sculptures. Tartan Day finished off with the Dressed to Kilt fashion show – themed Glasgow Meets Havana … at the Copacabana – featuring creations by a range of talent including Yvette Jelfs, an Edinburgh milliner, and Pringle of Scotland. A 700-year-old sword wielded by William Wallace was also on display. Those strutting down the catwalk included Scott Hastings, the rugby star, Darius, the pop star, and Mo Johnston, the former Old Firm footballer. Meanwhile, Tom McCabe, the finance minister, attended meetings in Washington DC. Mr McCabe said: "Building on our work with the US at a national level, it is crucial we ensure politicians and officials at state level understand what modern Scotland has to offer." April 3, 2005  ON DEADLY GROUND Louis Jebb, for Gardening Special 
Julian and Isabel Bannerman. Portrait by Johny Shand Kydd (cropped for use on this site)
Later this month, work will begin on turning a small corner of Manhattan into a garden that will be for ever Britain. The paving stones in Hanover Square, a few blocks from Ground Zero, will be lifted to begin digging for The British Memorial Garden – a place to commemorate the 67 British citizens killed on September 11. While few would argue about the merits of the project, some might raise an eyebrow at the husband-and-wife design team who have been chosen to undertake such a sober enterprise. For Julian and Isabel Bannerman are better known as purveyors of extravagantly romantic English country-house gardens – replete with grottoes, temples and lush planting schemes. Their idiosyncratic visions have won them a client list of high-minded grandees which includes the Rothschild, Getty, Sainsbury, and Pearson families, Lord Lloyd-Webber and even the Prince of Wales. But it wasn’t swanky connections which led to the memorial garden commission; the Bannermans won a competition two years ago which pitted them against the cream of Britain’s garden design talent. The challenge, says Julian, was in creating a garden which not only served its commemorative purpose but which was also robust enough to survive the harsh New York winters, the quantities of de-icing salt spread during snowstorms, and the long shadow cast over Hanover Square by a neighbouring skyscraper. If they’d based their design on the beau ideal of a herbaceous border, he explains: “the garden would have been over in a moment”. Their solution was a design based around stone – frostproof stone from Caithness, Morayshire, Wales and Portland, inscribed with the names of the counties of Britain – and evergreen topiary shaped from yew and box. Stone appealed to the Bannermans for historical reasons (many of Manhattan’s flagstones were imported from Caithness in the 19th century) and as a medium for carved lettering.  Off the old block: Simon Verity carves Morayshire stone for the garden. While working on the project, he went to live in a hut in Caithness Besides, as Julian points out: “People like looking at things written in the ground. Americans have a great tradition of marking their footprints in the ground.” The idea for the inscriptions, he says, came from “the poetry” of the Radio 4 shipping forecast. But instead of weather areas, they chose counties – as well as London boroughs and British dependencies – “because you find names like Cambridge, Boston, Somerset all over the States, so Americans would understand it.” The list of counties will run like a ribbon around the perimeter of the wedge-shaped garden, enclosing the topiary, raised beds of cyclamen and mock orange, and serpentine benches made in Portland stone. The yew topiary, meanwhile, brings with it a double symbolism – of remembrance for a long-lived tree associated with British churchyards and also an added sense of the ancient. “Topiary,” says Julian, “is timeless.” The project is the latest in a line of work which goes back to shortly after the Bannermans first met in Edinburgh, in the early 1980s. Isabel Eustace, a softly spoken Pre-Raphaelite beauty, was an undergraduate at the university, reading history and art history; Julian Bannerman, ebullient, fluent and trained in the arts ancient and modern, had already ventured into garden design and was running Bannermans, a bar and restaurant in the heart of the city’s Old Town. They were married in 1983 and perfected their art by making a garden of their own at the Ivy, in Chippenham. Until the Bannermans took it on, the Ivy had seemed a hopeless case. It was a ravishing Grade I Baroque house in poor condition, its remaining plot of land hemmed in on two sides by Chippenham’s ring road. For years an owner could not be found. But where others feared to walk, the Bannermans bravely moved in and – largely with their own hands – brought a Sleeping Beauty house back to waking life and created a garden which – with its ranks of pleached limes and rich herbaceous borders – caught the Zeitgeist of softened, slightly lush, formality in 1980s country-house gardens. It was while restoring the Ivy that they received their first high-profile commission – when the stonemason Simon Verity asked them to join him in creating a grotto and hermitage at Leeds Castle, in Kent. Their breakthrough years were the early 1990s when they worked simultaneously at Waddesdon Manor, in Buckinghamshire – for Lord Rothschild and the National Trust – restoring the dairy and a three-acre rock and water garden (unearthing caves, waterfalls and three lakes), and at Wormsley in the same county for the late John Paul Getty – creating a grotto-like tunnel between chalk cliffs, 100ft long and 40ft high. Whether they are making gardens formal or romantic, the Bannermans – who won a Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show in 1994 – are gardeners of ideas, in tune with the spirit of where their work. At Highgrove they have made two gardens for the Prince of Wales, with ferneries, temple groves and a green oak monument. The Prince gave the Bannermans his Royal warrant in 2002 and has come on board as patron of the garden in New York. Simon Verity has been one of the Bannermans’ main supports in developing their New York garden design. (Last Friday, a plan of the garden, carved by Verity, was due to be laid in Grosvenor Square, London). The other has been Camilla Hellman. A dynamic British businesswoman living in New York, she conceived the idea of the garden, found its site, set up and ran the competition to find a garden designer, and a second for a piece of sculpture for the garden, won by the celebrated artist Anish Kapoor – and is well on the way to raising the $6.5m (£3.5m) needed to build it and provide an endowment for maintenance. For Hellman, the Bannermans’ design has all the quality she hoped for in the garden, which she proposes will be opened in the summer of 2006. People who wish to support her fundraising can still “buy” a county or more from the list of British place names. The Bannermans, who, for all the poetry in their work, are the most hands-on of designers, can barely wait for the ground to be broken and to have what they call their first “dirt session” in the British Memorial Garden. Visit www.bannermandesign.com or www.britishmemorialgarden.org for more information. April 1, 2005 STONES CARVED IN CAITHNESS David Ross, Highland Correspondent A FIVE square metre stone map featuring Warwickshire and Herefordshire and the London boroughs, and carved in Caithness, went on show in London's Grosvenor Square yesterday, near the US embassy. But it is just a small part of a map of Britain which will soon cross the Atlantic to appear in the £2.5m British Memorial Garden in New York, commemorating the 67 British victims who died in the World Trade Centre on 9/11. Anish Kapoor, the British artist, won the competition to create a sculpture that will anchor the park, while artist Simon Verity's role is to prepare a stone pathway of grey Caithness flagstone punctuated by lighter Moray sandstone. The stones have been cut into curved ribbons by high powered water jets at the Norfrost refigerator factory in Castletown. The sandstone was then cut to fit between the flagstone ribbons and individually engraved with the name of a county in the British Isles. Two hundred and forty stones will be used to cover 95 counties. When they reach New York, the stones are to be laid to represent the UK coastline, leaving a landscaped map of Britain in the park. British dependent territories such as the Virgin and South Sandwich Islands have been engraved onto smaller stones cut as commas, while the shields of the 42 British societies in New York, such as the Daughters of the Empire and the St George's Society, will adorn iron bollards at the end of the garden. Camilla Hellman, president of the British Memorial Garden, said: "The garden already means a huge amount to Americans because they are so grateful to Britain for everything that we do. It will symbolise and celebrate the relationship between the two countries. It's all about reflecting, remembering and rebuilding." April, 2005  An article in the April 2005 edition of House and Garden magazine: THE WELL-LIVED LIFE  Click below to view the double pages of the very vivid "House and Garden" article on the Bannermans, designers of the British Memorial Garden New York. Pages 1 & 2, 3 & 4, 5 & 6, 7 & 8, 9 & 10, 11 & 12 March 31, 2005 MAP TRIBUTE TO SEPTEMBER 11 VICTIMS ON SHOW By Rachel Williams, PA A portion of a hand-carved stone map of the UK that will be part of a garden memorial to British victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks went on show today for the first time. The tribute, made of Scottish stone, will be exhibited in Grosvenor Square, London, near the US Embassy until April 22, before being transported to New York in August. There it will form part of the British Memorial Garden in Hanover Square, which will also celebrate the friendship between Britain and America. The completed map, which will cover three-quarters of an acre, will feature all the counties of Great Britain, the boroughs of London and British islands and protectorates. The design uses sandstone from Morayshire to trace the outline of the kingdom, with the names of all its pre-1976 counties painstakingly hand-engraved by British sculptor Simon Verity. The main paving is made of stone from Caithness. Railings around the garden will have 67 gilded finials, to represent the British victims of the World Trade Centre disaster. The portion of the map unveiled today covers Warwickshire and Herefordshire. The garden has been designed by British landscape architects Julian and Isabel Bannerman and will combine aspects of traditional British topiary gardens with more contemporary features. It will include a monumental sculpture to unity by renowned artist Anish Kapoor. Part of the garden will be displayed at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. President of the British Memorial Garden Camilla Hellman said: “The garden already means a huge amount to Americans because they are so grateful to Britain for everything that we do. It will symbolise and celebrate the relationship between the two countries. It’s all about reflecting, remembering and rebuilding.” Mr Verity was putting the finishing touches to some of the carving today. He spent five months in northern Scotland working on the project. Mr Verity said: “The stones are so hard that I hope they last forever.” The garden has been paid for by the Anglo-American community. March 31, 2005 BRITISH ARTIST SIMON VERITY AT WORK IN GROSVENOR SQUARE   Simon Verity at work in Grosvenor Square (AP Photo/John D McHugh) British artist Simon Verity at work on his hand-carved map of the United Kingdom in paving stone in London's Grosvenor Square, Thursday March 31, 2005. The carving, which will form part of the British Memorial Garden in New York's, Hanover Square, celebrates the friendship between the United Kingdom and the United States as well as honouring the 67 British victims of Sept 11. 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. March 31, 2005 MEMORIAL TO UK 9/11 VICTIMS SHOWN 
The stone sculpture will be part of a memorial garden in New York
A hand-carved piece of stone which will be exhibited in a garden honouring the British victims of the 11 September terror attacks, has gone on show. It is part of a map featuring the UK's counties, boroughs, islands and protectorates, which will be assembled in New York's Hanover Square in August. The section showing the Warwickshire and Herefordshire portion is displayed in Grosvenor Square, central London. It has been created by British Sculptor Simon Verity. The memorial garden in the US has been designed by Julian and Isabel Bannerman. It will have 67 gilded finials around the edges to represent the Britons who died in the World Trade Centre in 2001. Renowned artist Anish Kapoor has also created a monumental sculpture to unity for the garden which will also celebrate the friendship between the UK and the US. President of the British Memorial Garden Camilla Hellman said: "The garden already means a huge amount to Americans because they are so grateful to Britain for everything that we do. It will symbolise and celebrate the relationship between the two countries. "It's all about reflecting, remembering and rebuilding." March 31, 2005  TERROR ATTACK VICTIMS TRIBUTE A stone-carved UK map that will form part of a memorial to British victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks is going on show in central London. The tribute, made by sculptor Simon Verity, will be exhibited near the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square. It will eventually form part of the British Memorial Garden in Hanover Square in New York. March 31, 2005 STONE MAP USED FOR SEPTEMBER 11 MEMORIAL A stone carved UK map will form part of paving in a memorial to British victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The tribute, made of Scottish stone, will be exhibited in Grosvenor Square, London, near the US Embassy. It will eventually form part of the British Memorial Garden in Hanover Square in New York. Railings around the garden will have 67 gilded finials, to represent the British victims of the World Trade Centre disaster. British sculptor Simon Verity's work used Caithness flagstone and Moray sandstone. It features metre-long stones representing counties in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and overseas territories. March 31, 2005  STONE MAP COMMEMORATES 9/11 ATTACK National News A stone-carved UK map that will form part of paving in a memorial to British victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks is set to go on show. The tribute, made by British sculptor Simon Verity using Caithness flagstone and Moray sandstone, will be exhibited in Grosvenor Square, London, near the US Embassy. It will eventually form part of the British Memorial Garden in New York's Hanover Square. March, 2005  THE BRITISH MEMORIAL GARDEN On the morning of September 11th 2001, British Expat Camilla Hellman went about her regular life, she sat by her New York computer emailing a friend in the World Trade Center, later that day she received word that one of her friends had perished at the World Trade Center.In all, sixty seven British Citizens died in the World Trade Center on that fateful day. In June 2002 Ms. Hellman decided that New York and the families needed a place to remember those victims. The idea has since flourished into the British Memorial Garden, a garden which even before being planted has sprouted many branches: A venue to honor the British victims, a gift to the people of New York for the support British families and friends received in the months and years post nine eleven, a New York Location for the British to observe Remembrance Day, and a celebration of the unity between America and Britain. Her idea has received the support and backing from none other than the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, Her Majesty’s Consul-General to New York and the Prince of Wales, who is now the Royal Patron of the Garden. Care has been taken to ensure the entire United Kingdom is represented in the British Memorial Garden. The finials of the railing will be topped with Thistles, Roses, Flax and Daffodils to commemorate Scottish, English, Northern Irish and Welsh nationals respectively.The cost of the Garden is estimated to be $6 million dollars. The British Memorial Garden is continuing to rai |