Reading Rules! (British Library)

Member Name: edie

Product:	British Library
Date:	10/05/01 (125 review reads)
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Advantages: Books, books, books

Disadvantages: Too many books!, And you can't take them home

One of my favourite places in London is the British Library located near St Pancreas station. Dating back to 1753, this was previously part of the British museum in Bloomsbury. But because of a lack of space in 1997 it was moved out to a new purpose-built location in North London. Although the old circular reading room (the haunt of the likes of Karl Marx, Freud and many others has now been restored to its 19th century glory and can be visited as part of the Great Court in the British Museum.

The library's new red brick building not the most atmospheric place to house the ancient collection although it has the benefit of having a lot more space. It is still the biggest library in the world with over 16 million books, more books than you could ever read on every subject you can think of (and a lot you probably can't). As well as a mind-boggling amount of letters, stamps, official documents and sound archive. Although it's worth remembering that it is a reference library, and none of the material can be loaned out. But there are 17 reading rooms at St Pancreas and the 2000 library staff and trained to deal with difficult research requests. As the website says: "Access to the reading rooms is provided to those who have reached a point in their research where no other library can adequately supply all the information required." It's free to view to main collection (one of the few truly free attractions in London) as well as the temporary exhibitions that are there, like the current one on Armenian Christian art. The British library also has an extensive shop, with mainly historically-themed books for sale.

But to help students and researchers the library now has extensive computer system so studying can be done on-line. And the British Library website at www.bl.uk means their extensive catalogue can now be accessed from your computer. Although avoiding the library would mean you missed one of the real treats of London the
rare books collection located in the John Ritbalt library. In this, hushed darkened space you can see priceless treasures such as original Shakespeare plays, the Magna Carta, a Gutenburg Bible, explorers maps from the age when they though the world was flat, the Anglo Saxon chronicles, the first book written in English although I couldn't make out a word of it (obviously English in a very medieval sense. There's also more recent rarities like Beatles lyrics, with John Lennon's incredibly messy handwriting, which makes them almost as difficult to read as the Anglo Saxon chronicles.

I didn't even know that such manuscripts even existed in their original forms anymore so to have them located all under one roof and only a tub journey away is too good an opportunity to miss.

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