British Museum Reading Room

The British Museum Reading Room stands in the heart of Bloomsbury, at the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum. Designed by Sydney Smirke, it opened in 1857 and served as the main reading room of the British Library until 1997. The circular room has a papier-mâché dome forty-three metres across, supported by cast-iron segments. Cast-iron book stacks once held forty kilometres of shelving around the walls. The ventilation and heating used the latest technology of the 1850s. The dome was inspired by the Pantheon in Rome but is not free-standing. The room attracted more than sixty-two thousand visitors during its public opening in May 1857. Famous researchers who worked there include Karl Marx, Virginia Woolf, Mahatma Gandhi and Oscar Wilde. Readers needed a ticket issued by the Principal Librarian, though credentials were generally available to serious scholars. The British Library Act of 1973 separated the library from the museum, yet the Reading Room continued to host the British Library until 1997. After the books moved to St Pancras, the room was restored and briefly opened to all visitors. Today the Reading Room is open for guided tours and general visits. The restored interior shows the original colour scheme of the papier-mâché ceiling. Visitors see glass cases displaying autographs and literary curiosities. The room’s design influenced the La Trobe Reading Room in Melbourne. Films such as Blackmail and Read or Die have used the dome and interior for climactic scenes. The space remains a grand setting for study and reflection in the heart of London.