Invitation to a private view of the Round
Reading Room
The British Museum, London, England, 5 May
1857
Three days after the
opening
By the early 1850s the British Museum Library
badly needed a larger reading room. Antonio Panizzi, the Keeper of
Printed Books (1837-56), had the idea of building a round room in
the central courtyard of the Museum building. The rest of the
courtyard would be filled with stacks (shelving) for the
Library's thousands of
books.
The Reading Room was
begun in 1854 and opened on 2 May 1857 with a
'breakfast' (including champagne and ice cream)
laid out on the desks where the catalogues were
kept.
This ticket for a
private view on 5 May 1857 includes a plan of the room. In the
centre is the raised desk where the Superintendent sat. From there
he could look along the lines of readers' desks which are
arranged like the spokes of a
wheel.
Around the outside
of the Round Reading Room were the bookstacks. They were made of
iron to take the great weight of the books and to protect them
against fire. They contained three miles (4.8 kilometres) of
bookcases and twenty-five miles (forty kilometres) of
shelves.
The Library itself
(now the British Library) has moved to another building in St
Pancras, and the bookstacks have been taken down, but the Round
Reading Room still stands at the heart of the
Museum.