The Architectural Legacy of Queen Elisabeth’s 70 Year Reign

The Architectural Legacy of Queen Elizabeth’s 70 Year Reign

Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, United Kingdom’s longest-reigning monarch, has passed away at Balmoral Castle, aged 96. Earlier this year, Her Majesty became the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years since her ascension to the throne. During her coronation, the first ceremony of this type to be televised, newspapers and tv broadcasters talked about a “New Elizabethan Age” that would revive Britain from postwar gloom. Now, seven decades later, as the longest reign in British history has come to an end, people come together to honor The Queen and reflect upon her legacy in terms of culture, technology, and architecture.

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In the 1950s, at the beginning of the Queen’s reign, the British landscape was still dominated by churches, castles, and palaces as the most representative architectural forms. The Guardian notes that in 1952 when she came to the throne, the tallest building in Britain was St Paul’s Cathedral. Now London’s skyline is marked by glass and steel office towers, many measuring over 150 meters in height. The end of low-rise buildings is one of the noticeable characteristics of the current era. Yet, despite the dramatic changes, the term “New Elizabethan style” is not often mentioned when describing the UK’s architectural developments.

While many landmark buildings were produced under Elizabeth II’s reign, the aesthetic variety means that many different terms and concepts are needed to describe the built environment accurately. “I cannot imagine a term or an argument that would tie all of this together,” notes Stanford Anderson, a professor emeritus of history and architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, cited by The Economist. “New Elizabethan architecture’ just ducks the question.” This is a departure from the stylistic classifications of historical British architecture, which were coherently linked to a monarch’s dynasty. One of the best examples of this is Queen Elizabeth the First. She lent her name to a style that represented a remarkable period of advancement for the English and mirrored the Renaissance in continental Europe.

By contrast, the Second Elizabethan Age can only be described as pluralistic. Modernism marked the postwar period in England, with its variation, Brutalism, being the prevailing architectural style for new housing estates in Britain throughout the 1970s. Large residential complexes like the Barbican, completed in 1982, or Park Hill Estate, completed in 1961, were initially met with reluctance but are now somewhat rehabilitated in the eyes of the public. However, in the 1980s, Britain’s investment in public and social buildings slowed down, and thus the influence of the state upon the architectural agenda also diminished.

The statement architecture of private capital came to influence the image of UK’s development. Glass and steel towers now define the appearance of the UK’s major cities. New monuments like Norman Foster’s The Gherkin or Renzo Piano’s The Shard have little to no connection to England’s architectural traditions but instead aim to create a globally recognizable image and stimulate local economic growth. There is no linear stylistic development, but representative buildings have taken cues from the High-Tech movement in the 1990s, as exemplified by Lloyd’s building in London, Post-Modernism, in the case of Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery, designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, or Deconstructivism, as in Daniel Libeskind’s Imperial War Museum North.

Given the accelerated development of Britain’s architectural landscape, it might be challenging to pin down Queen Elizabeth II’s impact and legacy. On the one hand, it would be justified to point out the erosion of the formally pivotal tradition of royal patronage. Whereas the Queen’s forbears sealed their legacies by commissioning cities, palaces, and cathedrals, the Queen has been discreet in expressing interest in directly influencing the built environment. Her son, formerly known as Prince Charles, now King Charles the Third, has already proven to be more vocal. Yet, his interventions and preference for pastiches of other eras have sparked debates in the architectural communities. On the other hand, a monarch’s reign is usually remembered for the state of the society they oversee. It might be a little early to assess it. Still, maybe in the future, with the added benefit of hindsight, we might appreciate Elizabeth II’s era as one of progress, innovation, and constantly improving quotidian comforts.

Editors’ Note: This article was first published on June 08, 2022, to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, and updated on September 09, 2022.