Bomber Command Memorial Column, Facade

Bomber Command Memorial

London W1

Awards:

Winner for New Build Traditional Category (Natural Stone Awards 2014)

Architect/Designer:

Liam O'Connor Architects

Client:

RAF Benevolent Fund

Main Contractor:

S McConnell and Sons

Completion Date:

2012

Portland Stone:

Jordans Basebed & Jordans Whitbed

Scope of Project:

Cladding and Low Baring Stone Work for War Memorial

The new monument based in London'€™s Green Park will commemorate the 55,573 crew members of the RAF's Bomber Command who were killed between 1939 and 1945.

The memorial, which was completed in 2012 ahead of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations, was designed by Architect Liam O'Connor, who is best known for the Armed Forces Memorial in Staffordshire.

The sculpture is set on a 1.5m black basalt plinth. The height of the plinth and the scale of the sculpture as a whole means that visitors will always see the profile of the figure against the sky above them, day and night - thus rendering that section of the sky powerfully symbolic for the memorial.

This project involved quarrying and mining some of the largest stones ever extracted from Portland - the memorial incorporates 77m³ of Jordans Whitbed, used for plint courses, curved benches and the stonework above the architrave blausters and copings, and 288m³ of Jordan€s Basebed in the two main sections of the structure and colonnades.