The Great Court
On 6 December 2000, Her Majesty the Queen conducted the formal
opening of the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court.
The two-acre square, enclosed by a
spectacular glass roof, transforms the Museum's inner courtyard,
with the world-famous Reading Room at its centre, into the largest
covered public square in Europe.
Designed by Foster and Partners, the £100 million project was
supported by grants of £30 million from the Millennium Commission
and £15.75 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The courtyard was one of the lost spaces of London, hidden from
public view since 1857. The relocation and opening of the British
Library at its St Pancras site enabled valuable space within the
Museum to be utilised to the benefit of the Museum's visitors.
The Great Court increased public space in the Museum by forty
per cent, allowing visitors to move freely around the Main floor
for the first time in 150 years and visitors can now choose from a
number of different approaches to the galleries. There is direct
access west into the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery, east into the
King's Library and north into the Wellcome Trust Gallery. Inside
the courtyard, two monumental staircases encircle the outside of
the Reading Room and lead to the Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery,
and the Court Restaurant. From the restaurant level a bridge link
takes visitors into the upper galleries of the Museum.
The glass roof and south portico
Work on the Great Court's magnificent glass and steel roof began
in September 1999. The 478-tonne steel structure, which supports
315 tonnes of glass was built like a giant jigsaw puzzle. The
installation of the glass panels was completed in July 2000.
As part of the Great Court project, the 1870s extension to the
Museum's Weston Great Hall was removed and a new southern portico
reinstated using over 1,000 tonnes of stone.
As well as housing lifts providing access to the upper floor,
the new South portico has three large portals through which the
majority of visitors gain their first view of the Great Court.
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 Museum's Montague Place entrance has been similarly enhanced by
the reinstatement of the railings removed at the time of the Second
World War. Faithful copies of the original cast iron gates and
railings were specially commissioned for this impressive feature on
the north side of the Museum. This sequence of linked spaces forms
an important part of a new cultural route from The British Library
at St Pancras to Covent Garden.
The Clore Education Centre and the Ford Centre for Young
Visitors
Housed in the lower level of the Great Court, the Clore
Education Centre comprises the BP Lecture Theatre; the Hugh and
Catherine Stevenson Theatre; the Raymond and Beverly Sackler
Seminar Room; the Studio, used for art and craft activities; the
Claus Moser seminar room and The Ford Centre for Young
Visitors.
The Clore Education Centre has enabled the Museum to expand its
educational role. Its two auditoria are home to a daily programme
of lectures, film and videos, as well as conferences, concerts and
other performances related to cultural festivals or special
exhibitions. Five additional multi-purpose rooms are also used for
other programmes ranging from informal 'drop-in' sessions to
courses for the general public and teacher training.
The Ford Centre for Young Visitors provides dedicated facilities
and a range of tailor-made educational programmes for the hundreds
of thousands of young people who visit every year in school and
college groups. At weekends and during school holidays these areas
are used for family and community events.
New galleries
The building of the Great Court also provided new permanent
gallery spaces. The Sainsbury Galleries house a display of
objects from the Museum's Africa collection. The Wellcome
Trust Gallery is home to a series of long term, cross-cultural,
thematic exhibitions, currently based around Living and Dying. In
addition the Joseph Hotung Great Court Gallery was created as
a major space for temporary exhibitions.
Image: The Great Court. Photograph by
Nigel Young