The Menin Gate is perhaps the most famous of the CWGC’s memorials. Hundreds of thousands of people have visited it, and huge numbers take part in the moving Last Post ceremony held there every evening. For many, it is the essential must-see memorial on the former battlefields of the Western Front. And it’s easy to understand why people keep coming back, as I do, to stand in what it’s architect, Reginald Blomfield called “that great Hall of Memory”. Set in the heart of the beautifully restored and wonderfully welcoming city of Ieper, the memorial is a place where almost the entire Commonwealth can be remembered at one spot.
Blomfield’s architecture amazes and embraces us. It sits so neatly into Ieper’s ramparts, making it an integral part of the city’s historic fabric, while also being distinctive without being bombastic. It ensures that 54,000 men are not missing, but here, as Field Marshal Lord Plumer stated on unveiling day, 24 July 1927, while also quietly, but firmly, asking us to remember the British and Commonwealth forces who endured so much in the defence of Ieper.
Blomfield was rightly proud with his achievement in the Menin Gate. Over my years of visiting, I have been fascinated to see how often its essential form remained at the core of his designs for the Commission. To give just a few examples, and to start within Ieper itself, let’s take the short walk from the Menin Gate and enter St. George’s Memorial Church. Look up at the ceiling and you’ll see that its barrel vault mirrors the Gate.
Now let’s go out to Aeroplane Cemetery and study both the gate piers and then the short pillars that delineate the sanctuary-like space enclosing the War Stone. Look at the gentle concave curve on the top stones. Is it me, or is Blomfield playing another variant on his Menin Gate Hall of Memory? And after that turn your attention to the shelter. Is the roof familiar?
Finally, let’s make the short journey to Lijssenthoek, walk up to the main entrance and then cross the road so it can be contemplated from the far side. Gone are the curves of the Gate, but the essential form of a central passage with flanking apertures is there. To my mind, this is the Menin Gate reimagined, rearranged and reformed.
I love spotting the signatures of the individual architects in the cemetery and memorial designs. I love the fact that they bring such distinctiveness to each site. I am awed by the fact that each touch and flourish was done in service of the dead, honouring them through the genius of the architects and horticulturalists.
Come on a battlefield tour with me and we will explore the ‘handwriting’ of these remarkable teams together.
