A new chapter

The British Museum's Reading Room-where Sylvia Pankhurst and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once workedhas reopened at last

- Richard MacKichan

Opened by the late Queen in 2000, the Great Court of the British Museum quickly became an icon of the capital’s cultural landscape.

If you’ve ever wondered what used to fill that gleaming space before it was a courtyard, well, it formed most of the British Library. From 1997, three storeys and several centuries’ worth of books were removed to their purposebuilt St Pancras site, allowing Foster + Part- ners’ glass-covered creation to take shape. Some of that library, however, never left.

The cylindrical centrepiece to which all that tessellated glass is affixed is the original round Reading Room, which has spent much of its new life off limits. Until now.

The domed Reading Room first opened on May 2, 1857, designed by architect Sydney Smirke (another of whose famous domes sits atop the Imperial War Museum), after principal librarian Antonio Panizzi suggested a round room would help with storage. More than 60,000 people visi- ted in its first 10 days.