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
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
St Mary Aldermanbury church
This church, destroyed in the Great Fire in 1666 and rebuilt by Wren in 1676 was damaged in WW1 and then gutted in WW2, and then left roofless waiting for demolition - Londonist has a photo. On 5 ...
2 memorials
1 memorial
Sir John Soane, R.A. F.R.S.
Architect and collector. Born in Goring-on-Thames, son of a bricklayer. Architect of the Bank of England, the Dulwich Picture Gallery, St. John’s, Bethnal Green and his own tomb. He also rebuilt mu...
7 memorials
Sir John Summerson
Museum curator and architectural historian. Born John Newenham Summerson at Barnstead, Coniscliffe Road, Darlington. He taught at Edinburgh College of Art, and had professorships at Oxford and Camb...
1 memorial
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