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
St Bride Foundation Institute
Established to meet the educational, cultural and social needs of a community working within the burgeoning print industry of the Victorian era.  The Londonphile has visited and photographed the in...
Group, Journalism / Publishing, Museums / Libraries, Theatre
1 memorial
William Ralston Shedden-Ralston
Born York Terrace, Regent’s Park. His strange name seems to be the result of his father's near-illegitimacy and subsequent extensive litigation. Librarian, folklorist and Russian scholar. He gra...
1 memorial
Earl of Ellesmere, Francis Egerton
Politician, poet, founding trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. One of the Commissioners for the Great Exhibition, 1951. Born 21 Arlington Street, Piccadilly. Died Bridgewater House, London. ...
Person, Literature, Museums / Libraries, Poetry, Politics & Administration
1 memorial
Shoreham Aircraft Museum
Founded by local enthusiasts, whose passion for the Battle of Britain period resulted in the establishment of a permanent display in 1988. It houses hundreds of relics excavated by the group from c...
2 memorials
Westminster Library
In 1856 the Vestry Council of St Margaret and St John in Westminster provided premises for a public library as described in the 1855 Public Libraries Act, thus beating other London parishes by 30 y...
1 memorial
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