Queen Elizabeth II Great Court

The Queen Elizabeth II Great Court is the covered central courtyard of the British Museum in Bloomsbury, London. It sits where the British Library once stored three storeys of books until 1997. The space was cleared and transformed into the largest covered square in Europe. A glass-and-steel roof designed by Foster and Partners now spans the entire court. The original circular Reading Room stands at its centre, now a museum library. The court links the museum’s wings like the Louvre Pyramid does in Paris. Twelve sculptures from the British Museum’s collection are installed on the main floor. They include an Assyrian king’s stela from the 9th century BC and a marble Lion of Knidos from the 3rd century BC. Two heads of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and two obelisks of King Nectanebo II also stand there. Hoa Hakananai’a, a statue from Easter Island, was later moved to Room 24. A pair of Chinese guardian figures from the 17th century and an Anglo-Saxon cross shaft from the late 8th century are also on display. Shops, a café and the Clore Education Centre occupy the lower level. The centre includes the BP Lecture Theatre and the Samsung Digital Discovery Centre. Nelson Mandela spoke at the opening of the BP Lecture Theatre in 2000. The South Portico was rebuilt with lifts for disabled access. The glass roof, made of 4,878 unique steel members and 6,100 square metres of glazing, creates a bright, airy space above.