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 The
British Museum, founded in 1753, it is the oldest museum in
the world.
The collection was started by
the physician Sir Hans Sloane (1660 - 1753), who also responsible
for helping set up the Chelsea Physic Garden. Sloane's
'cabinet of curiosities' was greatly increased over the years
by gifts and purchases and the storage space soon became overwhelmed.
In 1847 Robert Smirke designed
the new neo-classical building, with its grand colonnaded
façade and spacious interior. The British Museum now
displays antiquities from all over the world and is the most
popular attraction in the capital.
The British Museum contains a
vast collection of treasures spanning 2 million years of world
history and civilization.
There are over 90 galleries (covering
2.5 miles), divided into specialised sections. The permanent
displays include treasures from Eygpt, Greece, Rome and Western
Asia. The museum's collection of Oriental art includes
superb examples of Chinese, Indian and Islamic workmanship.
Other galleries display artifacts
from prehistoric and Roman Britain and there is an important
collection of medieval, Renaissance and modern objects.
The museum's Ethnography Collections
have been returned from the Museum of Mankind and will be
displayed in various locations within the building including
the Sainsbury African Galleries which opened in 2001.
The British Museum's most important
treasures include the Elgin Marbles, the Egyptian Mummies,
the Rosetta Stone and the Mildenhall Treasures.
Until the late-20th century the
building also housed the British Library. However, to
mark the British Museum's 250th anniversary it was decided
to transfer the British
Library to a new site in the Euston Road.
  When
the library was re-located in 1997 the museum acquired 2 acres
of new space in the vast quadrangle around the Reading Room.
The museum was transformed with the creation of Sir
Norman Foster's splendid 'Great Court', London's first glass-covered
public square. The great undulating roof of glass and
metal (which floods the new plaza with light but reflects
the heat) has no visible signs of supports.
As well as restoring Robert Smirke's
façades of the courtyard the southern portico, leading into
the newly restored foyer, has been reinstated.
 At
the centre of the Great Court is the British Library's famous
domed Round Reading Room.
This has been painstakingly restored
to its original interior decoration. In this spectacularly
beautiful room museum visitors can get a taste of the
atmosphere that many famous readers, such as George Bernard
Shaw and Karl Marx, found so agreeable.
The Reading Room now contains
a public reference library and COMPASS, a multi-media system
giving visitors access to the museum's collections.
As well as being a breathtaking
open space the Great Court provides greatly improved access
to the galleries. There are also several cafes and museum
shops.
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