King's Library

The King’s Library was the original name for the royal collection of over 60,000 books and also the room in the British Museum that housed them.



The library had been formed by King George III (1760-1820) and was given to the nation in 1823 by his son King George IV.

However, when the library was donated there was not enough space in Montagu House, the original home of the British Museum collections. The current building was begun on the same site by architect Sir Robert Smirke (1781-1867).

The room for the King’s Library was built between 1823 and 1827, and was the first part of the new British Museum building as it is seen today. It was on a grand scale: 91m (300 feet) long, 12m (41 feet) high and 9m (30 feet) wide, with a central section 18m (58 feet) wide. Its great size called for the pioneering use of cast iron beams to support the ceiling.

In 1998 the books were transferred to their new home in the King’s Library in the new British Library building at St Pancras, London, designed by architect Sir Colin St John Wilson.

Careful restoration work between 2000 and 2003 revived the original room to its previous glory of the 1820s, in time to celebrate the British Museum’s 250th anniversary. Cleaning and repairs to the oak and mahogany floor and classical architectural features have refreshed the space. Hundreds of square metres of plaster were cleaned and repaired to restore the yellow and gold ornamentation and the re-gilded balcony. two hundred kilometres of wiring (twice round the M25 motorway) enabled a subtle lighting system to be installed, which aims to complement the newly-restored colour scheme.

The result was that two centuries of use and London grime were washed away and a major permanent exhibition, using thousands of objects from the Museum collection to show how people understood their world in the Age of Enlightenment, was created.

The restoration project and new exhibition were made possible by the generosity of Simon Sainsbury, The Wolfson Foundation and Francis Finlay and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Pidem Fund, The British Museum Friends, The John Ellerman Foundation and many others.

The exhibition was developed in partnership with the Natural History Museum, the House of Commons Library and the British Library. Further material was lent by the Science Museum, the National Maritime Museum, the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Linnean Society of London, The Royal Collections Trust and The Ashmolean Museum.

In 2004, the King’s Library, now known as the Enlightenment Gallery, won the Crown Estate Conservation Award from the Royal Institute of British Architects. The judges said, “The restoration of the room, and its conversion to an exhibition about the history of the Enlightenment and of the early collections of the Museum itself, have revealed it in its full glory as one of the finest rooms in London.”

Image: the King's Library in the British Museum