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
British Film Institute
In 1996 the BFI erected 126 plaques across Britain to commemorate the centenary of cinema. See the pdf.
16 memorials
Major Ernest Edward Austen, DSO
Ernest Edward Austen was born in 1867 in Dalston, Middlesex (now Greater London), the eldest of the five children of Ambrose Austen (1838-1924) and Eliza Burnet Austen née Smith (1839-1916). His bi...
War served, Other war
1 memorial
National Maritime Museum
One of a trio of Greenwich museums, the others being the Royal Observatory and the Queen's House.
Group, Armed Forces, History, Museums / Libraries, Transport
3 memorials
1 memorial
Dr Walther Model von Thunen
Pastor and philatelist. He had been a collector of stamps for most of his life, but his collections and library were lost when his house was looted by members of the occupying Russian army. His col...
1 memorial
Previously viewed
Ada Salter
Socialist and pacifist. Born Ada Brown at Raunds, Northamptonshire. She joined the West London Mission to work among the London poor, and in 1897 transferred to the Bermondsey Settlement, where she...
6 memorials
German PoWs
N22, South Terrace
The plaques on on the south face of the tower, either side of the entrance. Londonist reported that in the WW2 Blitz (while BBC radio was...
1 subject commemorated,
1 creator
Henry Hugh Armstead
Sculptor and illustrator. Born Bloomsbury. Executed a large number of public statues and funerary works, and worked closely with George Gilbert Scott on the Albert Memorial. Died at home 52 Circus ...
68 memorials
William Robert Fountaine Addison, VC
Awarded the VC for his heroism on 9 April 1916, age 32, while serving in the Army Chaplains’ Department. "For his unceasing attention to the wounded... under incessant fire and with utter disregard...
War served, WW1
1 memorial
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