If
you are the kind of traveller that likes poring over old parchment or turning
the pages of tomes that are hundreds of years old - then this attraction is for
you.
When
the national collection of books grew too massive for the library at the old
British museum a new building was designed at St. Pancras, only ten minutes
walk away. At the time it was the most expensive building in Britain costing
500 million to build and taking over ten years to construct. It now stretches
over 100,000 square metres and its basement, which is the deepest in London has
space for over 12 million books. This place is a bookworm's fantasy.
The
library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from many countries,
in many languages and in many formats, both print and digital: books, manuscripts,
journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, videos,
play-scripts, patents, databases, maps, stamps, prints, drawings. The Library's
collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial holdings of
manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 2000 BC. The British
Library is the largest
library in the world by number of items
catalogued.
It can be
reached by walking along the Euston Road from either Kings Cross or Euston Tube
stations. Or by Number 73 bus from Trafalgar Square. Before you enter is a
giant piazza dominated by a Paolozzi's bronze statue of Newton with compass
plotting the immensity of the universe.
The whole building on first glance looks a sixties mess but as you look
closer its genius becomes apparent. The British library symbols have become
iconic and the sheer immensity of the
new St Pancras station with its new hotel and eurostar terminal. Its
occasionally is peaceful entrance to the library.
Inside is the great research library (you need
to prove you are there for research to use this), an excellent bookshop,
cafeteria, and a six-story glass tower containing the collection of books from
George III which was given to the nation. But inside it is helped by the layout
which is high tech and easy to fathom.
Anyone with a current library card can use it free of charge.
But the best
thing about the BL is the free exhibitions. To the left as you enter is the
John Riblat gallery - an absolute gem.
Under high-tech conditions are the most
precious books in the world. The oldest surviving manuscript - the priceless
'Diamond Sutra' is on display from 638 AD and also the earliest printed book.
Also under glass cases are Buddhist and Hindu texts, two Gutenberg bibles from Mainz, gilt inlaid
Qu'run's and Korans and the 'Lindesfarne' gospels. Not to mention two copies of
the Magna Carta – the symbol of English law. A room to one side allows you to handle these
through interactive television screens.
You can wander
around viewing Henry VII's maps of Calais, Nelson's battleplans for Trafalgar,
the diaries of Babur and the scribblings of Newton and Michaelangelo. My
favourite are the notes of Charles Babbage to the Duke of Wellington trying to
get him interested in his new calculating machine (computer). One day I was
reading some notes I realised it was Mary Queen of Scots complaining
about her situation.
Nearby is Jane Austens writing desk and papers
from the Brontes, Wordsworth, Bach, Elgar, not to mention Beethovens tuning
stick. It is time for Shakespeare's mortgage and original lyrics and records by
the Beatles. One seeing these my father said "You mean to say those
records I have at home belong in a museum - Lord, I feel old..."
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