16 years between the laying of the foundation stone in 1982 and the opening in 1998. The Independent explains the delay: "The reason it has taken so long to build ... has relatively little to do with the competence, or otherwise, of architect and contractors. The project has been toyed with by successive governments. The building was designed for a different site in Bloomsbury. Time was wasted when it had to be redesigned to fit the eventual site alongside St Pancras Station. Successive governments have trimmed the budget. Each time they have done so, Colin St John Wilson and his team have had to redesign parts of the building."
This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
British Library
Commemorated ati
British Library- Foundation Stone
The British Library H.R.H. The Prince of Wales unveiled this stone 7 Decembe...
Opening of the British Library
This inscription is opposite the entrance, below the Shakespeare statue.
This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
British Library
Creations i
British Library - Anne Frank
The tree itself is almost entirely lost, half buried in a modern planting sch...
Other Subjects
William Alfred Westropp Foyle
Founded Foyles Bookshop in 1903. Born Shoreditch, the 7th child of a 7th child of a 7th child. William and brother Gilbert opened their first bookshop in Islington, moved to Peckham and then Ceci...
1 memorial
Chauncy Hare Townshend
Collector, dilettante, ordained clergyman, mesmerist, and hypochondriac (list from Wikipedia). Born Godalming into a wealthy family. Famous for his 1821 meeting with the poet John Clare (whom he i...
1 memorial
Sir Sidney Colvin
Born Norwood, Surrey. Art and literary scholar and museum administrator. He was director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge from 1876 to 1884, and then keeper of the department of prints and draw...
1 memorial
Olive Katherine Lloyd-Baker
From Cotswoldsaonb: "Olive Lloyd-Baker was born ... the middle of three daughters of Michael Granville Lloyd-Baker, eldest son and heir to the Estate. There are glimpses of her strong character in ...
Person, Gardens / Agriculture, Museums / Libraries, Politics & Administration
1 memorial
King Edward the Seventh's Galleries
An extension to the British Museum by the architect Sir John James Burnett.
1 memorial
Previously viewed
The Page Estate
Housing Estate in Eltham. Inaugurated by the then Minister of Health, Christopher Addison. The photograph is an aerial view of the estate taken in 1931.
1 memorial
William Hawkins
1883, Trustee of Lopping Hall, Loughton. According to G. Sludge, ".. a builder's labourer". At the time this was not a normal occupation for a Trustee of something like Lopping Hall. We wonder if ...
1 memorial
Chelsea Temperance Society
Founded 1837 with Sydney Hall in Pond Place. At Exciting we learn "In about 1906 they published a set of cards showing their original Sydney Hall and vacant site nearby at the southern apex of Bury...
6 memorials
Margaret Mary Damer Dawson
Born Sussex. Founder of the Women’s Police Force, in WW1. Organizing Secretary of the animal campaigning organisation the Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society. This opposed vivisection, camp...
2 memorials
W. J. Chamberlain
As a member of the No-Conscription Fellowship he was a leading conscientious objector to WW1.
1 memorial
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