The British Museum
From Archiplanet
 | The British Museum |
| Designer | Sir Robert Smirke |
| Location | London, England |
| Date | 1823 to 1847 |
| Building Type | art and historical museum, library |
| Climate | temperate |
| Context | urban |
| Architectural Style | Victorian Ionic facade, Classical Revival |
| Street Address | |
| Notes | Includes one of the world's great library rooms. Glazed roof over restored courtyard by Norman Foster. |
| At Great Buildings | http://www.GreatBuildings.com/buildings/The_British_Museum.html |
Contents |
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[edit] Discussion
<! -- commentary -->"Until recently, the neoclassical British Museum in London was relatively unknown among the monuments of Europe. However, the opening of its Foster and Partners-designed Queen Elizabeth II Great Court has awakened a sleeping giant. This refurbishment can best be described as a fusion of conservation and innovation, merging old with new, to finally open up the museum to a new and admiring public.
"In 1823, architect Robert Smirke was commissioned to design a building in London to house the King's Library and to provide a proper home for the museum's collections. It took some 24 years to build.
"The original museum had four principal wings arranged around an open, two-acre (0.8-hectare), quadrangle-shaped courtyard. No sooner had the British Museum been completed in 1857 than a growing demand for storage space dictated that a new copper-domed reading room be built in the middle of the courtyard.
"The great Round Reading Room became a popular haven, used by such luminaries as Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Oscar Wilde, Leon Trotsky, Rudyard Kipling, George Bernard Shaw, and Virginia Woolf."
— Don Barker, "Foster and Partners Roof the Great Court", in ArchitectureWeek No. 38, 2001.0214, pD1.1.
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[edit] References
"Foster and Partners Roof the Great Court ", by Don Barker, ArchitectureWeek No. 38, 2001.00214. pD1.1.
Michael Brawne. Libraries: Architecture and Equipment. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970. interior perspective drawing, f21, p19.
J. Mordaunt Crook. The British Museum. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1972. N1040.C7. LC 74-183060. perspective, p115. plan, p116.
Christine Flon, ed. The World Atlas of Architecture. London: Mitchell Beazley International, 1984. exterior photo of front, p337.
John Julius Norwich, ed. Great Architecture of the World. London: Mitchell Beazley Publishers, 1975. exterior photo, p210. exterior photo of temple facade, p210.Reprint edition: Da Capo Press, April 1991. ISBN 0-3068-0436-0. — An accessible, inspiring and informative overview of world architecture, with lots of full-color cutaway drawings, and clear explanations. Available at Amazon.com
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