What to do with the old British Library?
June 15 2017
Picture: British Library
There's a good editorial in The Burlington Magazine looking at the future of the British Museum, an in particular the old British Library reading room. This fantastic space is now, since the building of the new British Libary in St Pancras, left empty, with only bookshelves and old desks. It's sometimes used for temporary exhibitions, but not always satisfactorily, and with no sense of the fantastic architecture. The Burlington argues that the room should be converted not into a temporary display area, but into permanent galleries, which are badly needed in the BM. I agree! It would also be a way of rescuing the Great Court, which these days is little more than a giant creche for school groups. This editorial, by the way, is the first under the new editorship of Michael Hall.
More here.
