Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial, Hyde Park, London
Photo: Panos Asproulis, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain is a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales. It is located in the southwest corner of Hyde Park in London, just south of the Serpentine Lake and east of the Serpentine Gallery. It was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 6 July, 2004. Although it was designed with children in mind, its practicality and functionality has now put it in doubt.
The memorial was designed by American landscape artist Kathryn Gustafson and cost £3.5 million. It is constructed of 545 individual pieces of Cornish granite which were precisely cut using sophisticated computer-guided cutting machines in Kilkeel, Northern Ireland.
The Princess of Wales memorial is an oval granite streambed measuring 3 to 6 metres in width, with water flowing down sloping portions of it. On one side, the water flows downhill with gentle ripples. On the other side, the water cascades over steps, rills, curves and other shapes before emptying into the pool at the bottom. The two sides were intended to reflect the two sides of Diana's life, the transquil and the turbulent.
Initially people were allowed to wade in the water. However, just shortly after it opened, already three people were hospitalised when they slipped in the water. This resulted in closure of the fountain. It reopened in August 2004, but people were now forbidden from walking or running by posted wardens.
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