Covid-19: Campaign for St Paul's memorial to virus victims

A campaign is being launched to raise £2.3m to build a memorial inside St Paul's Cathedral to those who have died as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It would see an online book of remembrance installed in a purpose-built structure in the London landmark.

More than 7,300 names have already been entered into the book as part of the cathedral's Remember Me project.

It is hoped the memorial would provide a reflective space for visitors to remember loved ones.

St Paul's set up the online book to enable families, friends and carers to record and mourn those who have died as a result of the pandemic. It is open to people of all beliefs.

The campaign for the memorial, which is being carried out in partnership with the Daily Mail newspaper, is hoping to unite people from across the UK who are grieving the deaths of family and friends.

More than 127,000 people have died with Covid-19 in the UK, government figures show.

The online book would sit in a new portico structure which would take a year to build.

It has been designed by Oliver Caroe, the cathedral's surveyor of the fabric, whose mother died of Covid-19.

He said it would be a "fitting memorial" to those who have died and would be "part of the fabric of St Paul's and part of history for centuries to come".

"There will be many families like mine who never have had an opportunity to gather; to properly acknowledge thanks for the lives lived and to appreciate carers and clinicians we will never have met," he said.

The memorial would be built on the site of an earlier porch which was destroyed by a bomb in 1941 during World War Two.

Visitors would be able to call up entries in the online book, including a photograph of those who have died and an epitaph written by their loved ones.

The Very Reverend David Ison, dean of the cathedral, said: "The physical memorial at St Paul's will anchor the online book in a place where significant events and people have been commemorated for many centuries."

He said he hoped the memorial would be a "way of inspiring reflection, prayer or lighting a candle".

London is already home to the National Covid Memorial Wall, which consists of thousands of painted hearts on a wall opposite the Palace of Westminster.