Memorial to civilian war victims

The Queen visited London's east end during WWII

A piece of London's wasteland will be transformed into a memorial park to British civilians killed in war.

Even though 60,000 British people died in WWII alone, there is no national memorial to the country's civilian war dead.

Land at Hermitage Wharf in Wapping, east London, will be turned into the Civilians Remembered Park.

Proposals for the £2.75m memorial park include a glass exhibition pavilion, a path of stars with 60,000 fibre-optic lights.

Marianne Fredericks, of the Civilians Remembered Trust, said: "We wanted to create something which would help people understand more about the role and sacrifice of civilians in war, particularly the last war when there were so many civilian casualties.

Civilians' suffering

"We also wanted to raise awareness of the suffering endured by civilians throughout the world because of war."

There are also plans for a hand-print wall to commemorate civilian victims of war throughout the world.

The trust is preparing an application for a National Lottery grant and hopes that some of the money for the project will come from charitable donations.

Plans for the scheme will be on display to the public on 22 July at the John Orwell sports centre in Wapping and between 23 July and 5 August at the Museum of London.