16 years between the laying of the foundation stone in 1982 and the opening in 1998. The 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
Grant Museum of Zoology
A natural history museum that is part of University College London. It was established by Robert Edmond Grant (1793 – 1874, anatomist and zoologist) as a teaching collection of zoological specimens...
1 memorial
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
Frederic David Mocatta
Tycoon and philantropist.  Born London into a Jewish family who came to England from Spain in the 1650s.  Married but childless.  Worked in the family gold-dealing business until 1874 when he gave ...
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
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