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
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
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
Alfred Cotgreave
Alfred Cotgreave was born on 7 June 1846 in Eccleston, Cheshire, the son of Robert and Mary Cotgreave and was baptised as Alfred Robert Cotgreave on 4 April 1847 in St Catherine's Church, Tranmere,...
1 memorial
Sir Ashton Lever
Natural history collector. Born at the family seat near Manchester where he also died. His museum was at Leicester House on the northern side of Leicester Square and called the Holophusikon, or Hol...
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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