Controversy

Queen opens memorial to Diana

The queen inspects the Diana memorial fountain with minister Tessa Jowell and Prince Charles.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has opened a national memorial to Princess Diana in London's Hyde Park on Tuesday following years of controversy and budget overruns.
The £3.6 million ($6.6 million) water feature has drawn both praise and criticism for its design, which is based on a large oval stone ring.
In her speech, the queen acknowledged that creating the memorial had been "no easy task" and congratulated the designers and builders for their work.
"To present a likeness seemed at best unnecessary for someone whose image continues to exert such a fascination the world over. To find some other way to capture her spirit has been the challenge.
"I believe that you have given the park, at the very heart of our capital city that Diana knew so well, a highly original memorial which captures something of the essence of a remarkable human being.
"I think Diana would have enjoyed it, and I believe she would want all of us to do so too," the queen said.
It was the queen's first official speech about Diana since immediately after her death in 1997.
The memorial -- by American landscape architect Kathryn Gustafson -- has been called chic and dignified, although others have criticized it as looking like a storm drain or being too understated for a memorial to a princess.

Water pours into the granite structure from the top of a hill before running in two directions. It passes over a variety of features, including air bubbles, steps and curves, before meeting at the end in a reflecting pool.

"It isn't grand at all, although one of the designers and one of the close friends of Diana said it isn't grand because she wasn't a grand person," Hancocks said.

"One friend who worked closely with Diana on many charity projects said they didn't want this memorial to become like a spectacle, considering Diana was somewhat of a spectacle during her life."

After the ceremony, William and Harry went on a short walkabout with their father to meet members of the public, as did the queen and her husband, Prince Philip.

Absent was Diana's former butler Paul Burrell, who wrote a book about his life as her servant.

He said he would not attend for fear that the occasion would be overshadowed by the spectacle of him meeting William and Harry, who accused him of a "cold and overt betrayal" of their mother.

The fountain was open to a limited number of people following the ceremony, and organizers expected lengthy queues. About 1,000 spectators gathered for the ceremony, many of them hanging Union Jacks on the police barriers.

The project overran its budget by £600,000 ($1.1 million), and delays forced planners to abandon the original August 2003 opening date -- which would have marked the sixth anniversary of the princess's death.

The committee set up to oversee the project couldn't agree on a design, and the government stepped in to approve Gustafson's plan.

At one point, Diana's friend Rosa Monckton, who headed the committee, described the situation as a "fiasco."

1 Water enters fountain at highest point, pumped at 100 litres/second.
2 Water travelling east bounces down steps.
3 A specially sculpted channel makes the water rock gently.
4 Water picks up momentum and is invigorated by jets.
5 Water flowing westwards resembles a babbling brook.
6 Air bubbles are introduced as it approaches a waterfall before entering a water feature created by its flow over carved stone.
7 Final destination is the reflecting pool, where water from east and west meet before being pumped out to restart cycle.