British Museum reopens its reading room

The Reading Room, which opened in 1854 and now houses the museum’s archives, was restored as part of the £100 million redevelopment of the Great Court. When the project was completed in 2000, the Reading Room was made available to all museum visitors for the first time.

At the time, the museum housed a visitor centre, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Centre, and a collection of 25,000 books, catalogues and other printed materials on the world cultures represented in the museum. Most of the books in the library were moved to the purpose-built British Library building at St Pancras in 1997.

Since 2007, the reading room has been used for temporary exhibitions. The first exhibition held there was “The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army” (September 13, 2007 – April 6, 2008).

The reading room was no longer needed as an exhibition space when the World Conservation and Exhibition Centre opened at the museum in 2014.

The Reading Room was designed by British architect Sydney Smirke (1798–1877). The space, built of cast iron, concrete and glass, has a diameter of 42.6 m and is inspired by the domed Pantheon in Rome.

Main image:Reading Room, British Museum, London