THE BRITISH LIBRARY

The British Museum British Library

The British Library is one of the great libraries of the world. While its holdings may be smaller than the national libraries of the United States and Russia, it outstrips them in many areas through its having existed as an acquiring institution for longer than they have.

The Library developed out of a number of manuscript collections - the Cottonian, the Harleian, and the Sloane. The Cottonian Library was assembled by the Cotton family during the late 17^thC. It was presented to the nation at the behest of Sir John Cotton. The material was housed successively in Cotton House in Westminster, Essex House off the Strand, and Ashburnham House in Westminster. The Harleian Collection of Manuscripts was assembled by Robert Harley the 1^st Earl of Oxford and then by his son the bibulous, bibliophile 2^nd Earl. In 1753 the latter's daughter, the Duchess of Portland, sold the assemblage to the government for 10,000. The purchase was authorised by the British Museum Foundation Act of that year.

The Round Reading Room (1857) was built in the Museum's central courtyard. It was created principally as a result of the efforts of the Chief Librarian Sir Antonio Panizzi. Karl Marx's favoured seat was O7 and Lenin s L13.

In 1973, the British Library became a separate institution from the British Museum. The latter library departments were merged with a number of other national libraries.

In 2006 the British Library announced that it was shifting its collecting strategy in order to prepare itself for the growth of cultural and intellectual output that it was anticipating would be generated in India and China during the forthcoming years. At the time, the Library had over 150 million items in its collection.

Location: Great Russell Street, WC1B 3DG (blue, yellow)

Website: www.bl.uk

The King's Library

Lord Lumley was the great book collector of Elizabethan England. His library was bought by Henry Prince of Wales, King James I's eldest son. Thereby, it became the foundation of the first Royal Library.

For an author or publisher to establish ownership of the copyright of a book or literary work it had to be registered at Stationers Hall in the City of London. Under the Statute of Anne (1711) the Royal Library was entitled to receive one copy of every published work so presented. In 1757 King George II gave the Royal Library to the British Museum. Along with the donation, the right of receipt was also transferred to the Museum.¹

George s grandson and successor, King George III, built up a fresh and extremely splendid new Royal Library. His son, King George IV, gave this collection to the British Museum in 1823. Its physical size necessitated extensive building work being carried out upon the Museum so that it to could be accommodated.

Location: Stationers Hall, Stationers Hall Court, EC4M 7DD. Between Nos. 28 and 30 Ludgate Hill. (orange, yellow)

Website: www.bl.uk/collection-guides/the-kings-library www.stationers.org

¹. In 1911 the legal requirement for all licensed printing to be Entered at Stationers Hall ended.

Copyright and Acquisitions

By law, a copy of every printed literary item (including dress patterns) published in Britain must be deposited with the British Library. Such is required as part of the legal deposit process. There have long been mutterings from within the Library that large swathes of romantic fiction and vanity publishing are a positive drain upon the institution in view of the costs of their initial processing and subsequent storage. (The university libraries of Cambridge, Oxford, and Trinity College in Dublin, and the national libraries of Wales and Scotland are able to claim copies of books, etc., but are not statutorily obligated to preserve them as is the Library.)

A Treasury grant assists the Library in its purchase of other books and items. The institution also acquires items through donation.

The British Library Building St Pancras

The chief executive who drove the planning of the new British Library was Sir Harry Hookway (1921-2014). He had had a background in academic chemistry before working as a diplomat in the United States. He developed a good working relationship with the Library's chairman the Conservative politician Viscount Eccles. (The only disagreement that the two men ever had was that the latter wanted a chauffeured car to be at his continuous beck and call.)

The British Library Building project was given go-ahead in the late 1970s by the Labour government. The building was scheduled to open in 1989. The design was created by Colin St John Sandy Wilson. He had first become involved in the project in 1962. His plan was inspired by the work of the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, who had reinterpreted Modernism in an organic way.¹ Wilson viewed the prospective users experience of the building to be an important factor.² In 1979 a Conservative government was elected. It cancelled the project. However, as a result of Hookway's strategic planning, the scheme was far enough advanced that this resolution was questioned within the new administration. The decision was reversed and construction recommenced. The edifice is deeper than it is tall. The Library opened in 1998. Its inside is much better liked than its exterior is.

In 1962 the British Museum commissioned Wilson and Martin to produce a feasibility study for a separate British Library building. It was proposed that the new building would be constructed on a site south of Great Russell Street. In 1964 the project was given official approval to start. However, it was halted following a campaign led by the historian Hugh Thomas (1931-2017) to retain Panizzi's round Reading Room. A series of redesigns followed.

In 1970 it was decided that the National Reference Library of Science & Invention should be incorporated into the complex. Wilson was given sole charge of the project because the trustees were concerned that Martin might not live to complete the project. He took an organic approach, drawing on the British Free School tradition of Butterfield and Mackintosh.

The government required the size of the building to be doubled. As a result, in 1974 the project's proposed site was transferred from Bloomsbury to St Pancras. Wilson and three of his partners then spent a fortnight working separately from one another to devise the basic lay-out of the building. Within the partnership it was soon agreed that the best one was by (Mary Jane) M.J. Long (1939-2018), an American architect who was married to Wilson. Her thinking was informed by her having long worked on scheme.³ She and her husband were to prove to be the only people who saw the project from its start until its completion. There came a time when Wilson took to referring to the project as The Thirty Years War .

In 1975, following Howell's death, Wilson was appointed to a Chair in Architecture at the University of Cambridge.

The exterior was left fairly plain so that the building should not overshadow the neighbouring St Pancras Railway Station. In 1978 the Department of Education & Science endorsed a design. In 1979 the Conservatives took office and cut the project's funding. In 1982 the foundation stone was laid by the Prince of Wales. In 1988 the Prince described the reading room as the assembly hall of an academy for secret police . A senior Labour M.P. referred to the building as a Babylonian ziggurat seen through a funfair distorting mirror .

In 1991 the British Library budget for new works of art was cancelled.

In 1997 the new British Library building was officially opened. Its final cost was 511m, which was five times over budget.

Location: 96 Euston Road, St Pancras, NW1 2DB (blue, yellow)

¹. In Wilson's time at the London County Council's Architects Department, Wilson had been an admirer of the faction that had admired Le Corbusier rather than its Finnish and Scandinavian appreciating one.

². The architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner regarded Alto as being guilty of wilful form-making.

³. Long had a clear preference for making her architectural models from beer mats that she would glue together with P.V.A..

The British Library Newspaper Library

The 17^thC the bookseller George Thompson started collecting news sheets and pamphlets. This became a major record of the Civil Wars and the English Republic. Charles Burney (1726-1814) collected newspapers and had them bound. He ended having 700 volumes. The British Library acquired both collections.

In 1869 it became legally required for all British and colonial newspapers to be deposited in the British Library.

In 2009 it was reported that Colindale was going to be relocated to Boston Spa in Yorkshire. At the time, British Library collected editions of 190 overseas newspapers. It was reputed that its building had a room in which the newspapers that had been received were ironed. The Colindale facility closed in 2013. The National Newspaper Storage Facility has a low oxygen environment in order to reduce the risk of fire.

David Backhouse 2024