Queen of Hearts or slowly fading icon?

Viewers of the History Channel said it was Britain's most significant event of the past century. But did it mark the hearts and minds of a nation?

'I wish she were still alive," sighed Gloria from Co Armagh, as her eight-year-old son Mark scampered around the Princess Diana memorial playground in London last week.

The Peter Pan-themed area, given an extensive make-over after her death in 1997, is just around the corner from Diana's last home at Kensington Palace.

The imposing gates bring back images from that surreal time. The sobbing masses and the floral tributes that swamped the path in front of the palace when news of her death broke, five years ago tomorrow. A multi-coloured carpet of condolence creeping gradually across the park's south meadow, candles burning sweetly through the night.

The Princess loved Peter Pan, so there is a pirate ship, and sand pits, a sound garden and a water feature.

Despite repeated calls from the public for an official memorial, official indecision has meant the playground remained the only physical structure preserving the memory of the princess since her death, and that of Dodi al Fayed, in a Paris tunnel five years ago, victims, like so many others in the 20th century, of a car crash.

Elsewhere, there is the Diana Walk, a tree-lined path through nearby Hyde Park. Here, despite the strategically positioned memorial plaques, some people strolling along the route confessed they had no idea of its significance.

More controversially, the Diana Memorial Committee, set up by Tony Blair and watched over by Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, has just announced plans for a water monument in tribute to Diana on a gently sloping stretch of land by the Serpentine in Hyde Park.

The oval ring of water, designed by Kathryn Gustafson, while given the seal of approval by Diana's brother, Lord Spencer, and her sons William and Harry, has been variously described as a "puddle", a "national nothing" and "a moat without a castle". Those who believe the only fitting memorial of the princess is a statue of a laughing Diana surrounded by children, are appalled.

But there has been ambivalence too and for all the occasional bouts of public indignation, five years after the tragedy that triggered an almost unprecedented display of emotion in Britain, the waterfall of sadness seems to have slowed to a trickle.

Now commentators are wondering whether in another five years, the "Diana, why?" question will be replaced with mutterings of "Diana, who?"

For the moment, though, there is a steady stream of tourists, monitored closely bv security guards, who make the quiet pilgrimage to see where she lived.

And mainly female crowds still flock to the Althorp Estate, an hour's train journey from London, where the princess is buried. An average of 2,000 visitors a day come to pay their respects and buy Diana-inspired trinkets, the proceeds of which go to the Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Fund.

"I would certainly say there is a difference in the people who come. Less sadness and more affection, I suppose," said David Fawkes, general manager of Althorp in the villlage of Great Brington outside Northampton.

"That is only to be expected, the nature of grief changes. But because of her charitable works and her compassion, I think it is very unlikely she will ever be forgotten."

Others disagree. James Thomas, author of Diana's Mourning: A People's History, due to be published shortly by the University of Wales Press, argues that memories of the "People's Princess" have diminished over time.

He pointed to the fact that previous anniversaries passed by with little or no recognition and says that those who placed importance in the public grieving in the immediate aftermath of her death were guilty of misinterpretation.

"We look back and see it as a case of mass hysteria, rather than a week of people power as it was seen at the time," he said, adding that in his view events were skewed in a way that suited the media.

"Instead of saying that a significant minority were grieving deeply, they told us 'this is how everyone is feeling, this is how you must feel'," he said. "I agree with the theory that it was floral fascism in a country that was controlled by the grief police.

"There was sheer intolerance of any other view. If you weren't crazy with grief over this person you didn't know, then there was something wrong with you," he added.

Mr Thomas believes there are people in Britain who will not even remember that tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of Diana's death "until prompted". As for the legacy of the princess, he asks, "is Britain a more caring nation since her death? I doubt it very much".

However, Dr Andrew Purkis, the chief executive of the Memorial Fund, a charity which has raised almost £50 million for causes close to Diana's heart, says her image is certain to go on living even if, as he conceded, "the emotion has subsided".

"People still remember her with very great respect," he said. "She made an enduring and abiding contribution to humanitarian causes and I am certain she will be remembered for many, many years to come."

A poll conducted recently suggests it might indeed take some time before the "Diana who?" question is relevant. In a poll of 1,000 people conducted by the History Channel, the death of the princess was last week named as the most significant event in the nation's history over the last 100 years. (Her demise was deemed more important than the outbreak of the second World War and women winning the vote.)

One thing is certain, controversies over how to remember a woman who is either unforgettable or irrelevant, depending on who you speak to, are set to rumble on.

Ms Vivienne Parry, a former charity work colleague of Diana, has dismissed the proposed monument in Hyde Park as "a national nothing". "I feel like there is a conspiracy to forget her," she told reporters. "We want to remember her sparkling and laughing not in something like this".

And that's how people sitting in sunshine at the Peter Pan playground want to remember her. She was "wonderful, just wonderful," said Sheila from Hammersmith, and the water monument is "a travesty". Her friend Joyce would like to see a life-size statue of her. "Something that captures the warmth and the compassion of the woman," she said.

There are also those who look back and cannot comprehend the depth of their grief.

"When I think about it, how I lost it completely, I can't believe it because it was like my own mother had died. When I think about Diana now though, it is different. It's sad but it's not the same," said Maria, a Londoner.