Memory Garden

Memorial for Children, Royal Hospital for Women’s Park, Paddington.

The memorial is designed as a garden composed of the existing heritage sandstone building fragments, creating a place of reflection, contemplation and play.

The memorial is sited at the junction of existing pathways in the centre of the park. Formed as a semi-sunken area within the landscape, the stone fragments provide places to sit, gather and explore.

White flowers bloom at intervals throughout the year, a symbol of the cycle of life. Traces of childhood are reflected in the embossed footprints of children that weave through the memorial. The footprints are a reflection of absence as well as a marker of presence.