Reading Room
The Reading Room stands at the heart of the Museum, in
the centre of the Great Court. Completed in 1857, it was
hailed as one of the great sights of London and became a world
famous centre of learning. It was restored in 2000 and is currently
used to host major exhibitions.
Design and construction
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 constructing a round room
in the empty central courtyard of the Museum building.
With a design by Sydney Smirke
(1798–1877), work on the Reading Room began in
1854. Three years later it was completed.
Using cast iron, concrete, glass and the latest heating and
ventilation systems, it was a masterpiece of mid-nineteenth century
technology. The room had a diameter of 140 feet (approximately
42.6m) and was inspired by the domed Pantheon in Rome.
However, it is not a free standing dome in the technical sense.
It has been constructed in segments on a cast iron framework. The
ceiling is suspended on cast iron struts hanging down from the
frame and is made out of papier mache.
A number of bookstacks were built surrounding the new Reading
Room. They were made of iron to take the weight of the books and
protect them against fire. In all they contained three miles (4.8
kilometres) of bookcases and twenty-five miles (forty kilometres)
of shelves.
Early years
The Reading Room opened on 2 May 1857. Between 8–16 May, the
library was opened up for a special one-off public viewing. Over
62,000 visitors came to marvel at the new building.
Those wanting to use it had to apply in writing and were issued
a reader’s ticket by the Principal Librarian. Among those granted
tickets were: Karl Marx, Lenin (who signed in under the name
Jacob Richter) and novelists such as Bram Stoker and
Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle.
Restoration and exhibition space
In 1997 the books were moved to a new purpose-built building in
St Pancras and the bookstacks were taken down. As part of the
Great Court development the interior of
the Reading Room was carefully restored. This process saw the
papier mâché interior of the dome repaired and the original blue,
cream and gold colour scheme reinstated.
When it reopened in 2000, the Reading Room was made available to
all Museum visitors for the first time. It housed a modern
information centre, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Centre, and a
collection of 25,000 books, catalogues and other printed material,
which focused on the world cultures represented in the Museum.
The Reading Room has now entered a new episode in its already
illustrious history and is a temporary home for major
exhibitions.
During this period, many facilities usually available in the
Reading Room can be found in the Paul Hamlyn Library, located through Room 2. The
Reading Room will revert to its normal use in 2012.
Previous exhibitions held in the Reading Room include:
From 24 September 2009 – 24 January 2010 it will be home to the
exhibition Moctezuma: Aztec
Ruler.
Images from top:
- William Lake Price, The Reading Room under construction, 1855
(detail)
- Private invitation to the Reading Room, from 1857
- The Reading Room (detail)