9/11 Memorial For Potters Field Park?

By · December 21, 2010 at 11:01 am · 12 Comments · Latest News · Report an error ·

9/11 memorial.

Update: The memorial was approved on Monday night by Southwark Council.

Original piece: A group called the 9/11 London Project Foundation is hoping to build a memorial to honour the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks, using steel girders taken from Ground Zero.

The twisted wreckage, designed into an eight metre-tall statue set into a reflective pool by artist Miya Ando, would be transported from Manhattan to Potters Field Park, next to Tower Bridge and City Hall, and form a permanent memorial to the near-3,000 victims. The Port Authority of New York is sending other girders around the world, and hopes to get them in place ahead of the 10th anniversary of the attacks in September. Southwark council is to consider the planning application today.

Some feel that the location and style of the installation (described in one comment as “overpowering and violent”) aren’t appropriate. London already has a memorial garden for the victims of the attacks, in Grosvenor Square, opposite the US Embassy. Local residents around Shad Thames have registered their complaints on the SE1 forums, while the Potters Field Park Management Trust is also opposed.

However, it is thought that Southwark will approve the plan today.

Tagged: , , , , , ,

Report an error

  • seriously?

    Tasteless. Why not just put an aeroplane wing or seat next to it too? I can understand the need for a memorial in NYC but in London and elsewhere?

  • seriously?

    Tasteless. Why not just put an aeroplane wing or seat next to it too? I can understand the need for a memorial in NYC but in London and elsewhere?

  • Anonymous

    Obviously, there’s a place for 9/11 memorials in places other than New York. Many of those who died were from overseas, including the UK. And people all over the world have felt the repercussions of the attacks ever since. It was a world event.

  • seriously?

    Ignoring the crass choice of object for the memorial, I’m not sure it’s so obvious why we’d have memorials across the world, apart from the fact the US wants to remind the world that the war on terror by any means is justified. I understand that just over 300 non-americans died in 9/11 just like more than half those who died in the tube attacks here were non-british. People from all over the world lost their lives in the Thai Tsunami too, yet I see no giant wave memorial being planned.

    Gravestones are memorials, and they are there not there for some mass mourning or more likely in today’s culture, morbid sight-seeing, but for the families to remember those they lost.

  • Anonymous

    Memorials to tragedies overseas are more common than you might think. There’s a memorial to the Bali bombings in Whitehall and a tsunami memorial is planned, for the gardens of the Natural History Museum. There’s even a memorial to JFK’s assassination, in Runnymede.

  • seriously?

    Blimey, I did not know that (and big respect to your London knowledge). I’d love to see some research into this subject (any sociology PhD students out there?) into the benefits of memorials. Do they really help us remember the past and what good and bad emotions do they stoke? Who are they for? Who uses them? What do we feel when we see them?

    • http://twitter.com/JackDaRipperJr Jack’d Ripp’d

      One is enough and the proposed object is a total disaster. Memorials for tragedies should be represented by something less ‘extravagant’ and more solemn.

      Save the extravagant memorials for the victories.

    • http://twitter.com/JackDaRipperJr Jack’d Ripp’d

      Apologies, this wasn’t meant to be a reply. Damn Disqus!!

  • Littleonesaid

    This isn’t even the first 9/11 monument using parts of the twin towers – one was built in my city (Christchurch, NZ) back in 2002: “A tribute to firefighters” by Graham Bennett. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kiwinz/4120022473/
    There was a fair bit of debate about the materials used at the time too but its location is a bit more subtle; near the main firestation but half submerged in the river – actually quite scenic.
    And at least the memorial was relevant back then. This seems like just an exercise in refusing to let it go.
    I’m not for a second making any comment on the necessity of commemorating the lives lost, right to mourn etc, etc but given that there is already a pretty special memorial in the city, I don’t really understand the point of spending £100,000s on another one ten years later. If the patrons of this project want to do something nice for the families of the victims, what about putting it towards scholarships for their kids or something that actually helps people?

  • jokers-delight

    waste of money and time… spend that money helping the homeless this winter.. its freezing out there.

  • http://www.poolinstallationguides.com Pool Installation

    I’m not finished read this yet, but it’s so fabulous ‘n I’ll back again when I was finished my job :D

  • http://www.largepot.net/information-news/indoor-helicopter-play-safe-for-maximum-fun/ large outdoor pottery

    Excellent! Great article, I already saved it to my
    favourite,

←
→