It has since been closed while its future use remains under discussion. This is an earlier library that has also had distinguished users, including Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Makepeace Thackeray, Robert Browning, Giuseppe Mazzini, Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens.[6]. Light sensitive material must be photographed without flash. We may request cookies to be set on your device. At the centre of British Museum sits the largest covered public square in Europe, the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court. Coats and bags must be placed in the designated areas. The library continued to be housed in the Reading Room until 1997, when the new British Library building opened in St Pancras. The commission goes towards the cost of running this blog. Read the fascinating histories behind the Museum's most prolific collectors. This Greek Revival style building sits at the heart of British academia in London's Bloomsbury. In 1997, this function moved to the new British Library building at St Pancras, London, but the Reading Room remains in its original form at the British Museum. Large bags and umbrellas must be left in the public cloakrooms. [1], In 2007 the books and facilities installed in 2000 were removed, and the Reading Room was relaunched as a venue for special exhibitions, beginning with one featuring China's Terracotta Army. Click to enable/disable _gid - Google Analytics Cookie. What will become of it we wonder. She wrote, "The swing doors swung open, and there one stood under the vast dome as if one were a thought in the huge bald forehead which is so splendidly encircled by a band of famous names." Free and open every day to visitors, the Great Court is one of London's most unique spaces. Entering the Round Reading Room for the first time was an intimidating experience. Five hundred desks, arranged like spokes of a bicycle wheel, filled the space below the massive dome. I never went there. Please use this resource to identify which items you wish to view on a study room visit. The exhibition is open during normal library opening hours. Tickets to it included a plan of the library. All the new views from Chelsea, free in your inbox every month. Find travel, entry and facilities information and details of our Museum activities. Perhaps that means they’ll unite the monumental Egyptian statues – now on the ground floor – with the mummies and ancient artifacts that are now several floors and a maze of corridors and galleries away. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. For more information on how we use cookies and how to manage cookies, please follow the 'Read more' link, otherwise select 'Accept and close'. Affiliate DisclosureSome links on this website are affiliate links. Requests not processed may also be cancelled. A central part of the project on the south side of the site was the re-landscaping of the Museum forecourt, creating an impressive approach to the refurbished Weston Great Hall and the Great Court. The British Museum plans to reorganize its collections and displays over the next ten years and the famous Round Reading Room will feature in its plans. At weekends and during school holidays this area is used for family and community events. Discover how the Museum and its collection began and how it has developed over the centuries. “The British Museum Reading Room” by Louis MacNeice Under the hive-like dome the stooping haunted readers Go up and down the alleys, tap the cells of knowledge-- Honey and wax, the accumulation of years-- Some on commission, some for the love of learning, Some because they have nothing better to do Or because they hope these walls of books will deaden The drumming of the … You can enjoy tea, coffee, light bites and hot food at the Great Court Café. You can check these in your browser security settings. So some of the galleries were always accessible. The British Museum plans to reorganize its collections and displays over the next ten years and the famous Round Reading Room will feature in its plans. The use of the Reading Room is restricted to the purposes of research and reference. Britain, Europe and Prehistory (Prehistoric, Roman, Medieval, Renaissance and Modern material). The autographs are now open to the view of all, spread out in glass cases, – as well as much other lit. If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here: We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. I’m glad to hear that the overhaul will include some serious attention to the Round Reading Room and its role in the grand scheme of things. Your email address will not be published. When it reopened in 2000, the Reading Room was made available to all Museum visitors for the first time. We are gradually increasing capacity and opening additional Reading Rooms to give more researchers the opportunity to visit. The Reading Room opened on 2 May 1857. The Reading Room stands at the heart of the Museum, in the centre of the Great Court. They were made of iron to take the weight of the books and protect them against fire. It is a circle, with a dome, lighted from above, & its diameter is 4 feet greater than that of the dome of St. Paul's. Then it was back to work in the Library, honoured to use it in the company of distinguished ghosts – Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G.Wells, George Orwell, Arthur Rimbaud, George Bernard Shaw, Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Mahatma Gandhi and, yes, Lenin and Karl Marx, who spent 40 years writing Das Kapital in this very room. The Egyptian sculpture gallery's unique atmosphere provides a truly memorable space. Find out more about accessing British Museum collection material for external scientific research. In the original Robert Smirke Great Court design, the courtyard was supposed to be a garden. It has been constructed in segments on a cast-iron framework. Click to enable/disable _gat_* - Google Analytics Cookie. The Reading Room stands at the heart of the Museum, in the centre of the Great Court. Several full, 20-volume sets of the Oxford English Dictionary, with lecterns on which to read the huge individual books anchored the ends of some of the spokes. For more information on how we use cookies and how to manage cookies, please follow the 'Read more' link, otherwise select 'Accept and close'. Virginia Woolf made reference to the British Museum Reading Room in a passage from her 1929 essay, A Room of One's Own. Completed in 1857, it was hailed as one of the great sights of London and became a world-famous centre of learning. You see, the Library was open later than the Museum (on late nights by as much as four hours later) and the only way into the Round Reading Room was through the Museum. Loosely based on Norman Foster's concept for the roof of the Reichstag in Berlin, a key aspect of the design was that with every step in the Great Court the vista changed giving the visitor a new surrounding. Find out about the work of the Museum collection, research departments and the research facilities available. So much to discover at the Chelsea Physic Garden. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you're unable to attend on the date you've agreed, please let us know as soon as possible so we can offer your place to another visitor, and to prevent unnecessary handling and transport of collection items. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Fridays to 8:30 p.m. Now empty, the Museum took the opportunity to once again re-open the space to the public. My own tomato cheese bread. What will become of it we wonder. Experience the UK's most popular Museum with a private out-of-hours tour. In 1997, this function moved to the new British Library building at St Pancras, London, but the Reading Room remains in its original form at the British Museum. Along corridors 6 and 12, I lingered in the half lit galleries, studying cases full of Greek, Minoan, Mesopotamian and Phoenician jewelry and hair ornaments, (some of which made its way into my own book), game pieces, tiny gold or bronze boxes and urns for ancient ointments and salves. The Reading Room was used for special exhibitions from 2007 until 2013. By the early 1850s, the British Museum Library needed a larger reading room. The general library for visitors (Paul Hamlyn Library) moved to a room accessible through nearby Room 2, but closed permanently on 13 August 2011. Violence or abuse towards any member of Museum staff will not be tolerated. A public viewing was held between 8 and 16 May, attracting over 62,000 visitors. [16], Room in the British Museum which was formerly the reading room of the British Library, Inside the Reading Room, before its conversion to an exhibition space, A plan of the desks and book storage in the room, An illustration of the old book stacks in the museum before their removal, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Invitation to a private view of the Round Reading Room, "BBC News | Entertainment | Facelift for British Museum's reading room", "BM confirms closure of Paul Hamlyn library | Museums Association", "British Museum - The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army", "Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, British Museum, London", "British Museum - Archive: Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance Drawings", Colossal quartzite statue of Amenhotep III, Amun in the form of a ram protecting King Taharqa, Todd-Bowden Collection of Tauchnitz Editions, Turner Collection of Newspaper Tax Stamps, Turner Collection of Railway Letter Stamps, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=British_Museum_Reading_Room&oldid=972309687, 1857 establishments in the United Kingdom, Buildings and structures completed in 1857, Infobox mapframe without OSM relation ID on Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from January 2019, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army, Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead: Journey Through the Afterlife, Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe, Life and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, Indigenous Australia: enduring civilisations, Drawing in silver and gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns, This page was last edited on 11 August 2020, at 10:57.
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