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
Shepherd's Bush Library
One of a number of libraries founded by the philanthropist John Passmore Edwards. The building fell into disuse after a new library was opened as part of the nearby Westfield London development. It...
1 memorial
1 memorial
Joseph William Comyns Carr
Born 47 Devonshire Street. Author, gallery director and theatre manager. In 1877 he became co-director of the Grosvenor Gallery in Bond Street, which promoted the work of the Pre-Raphaelite Brother...
1 memorial
British Empire Exhibition
The exhibition was held in Wembley Park. It was a showcase of aspects of many of the British colonies at the time. It had 18 million visitors in 1924, but failed to break even. The main stadium was...
1 memorial
Sir Robert Cotton
Antiquarian and politician. Born Robert Bruce Cotton in Denton, Huntingdonshire. He entered parliament in 1601, as the member for Newtown, Isle of Wight. His collection of manuscripts which became ...
1 memorial
Previously viewed
Ada Van Dantzig
Dantzig was a Dutch Jew who came to London to study. She returned to the Netherlands intending to help her family flee the Nazis. Instead she was captured and killed in Auschwitz, with most of her ...
War dead non-military, WW2
1 memorial
Piotr Ouspensky
Philosopher. Born in Moscow. He became a pupil of George Gurdjieff who taught that most humans live their lives in a state of hypnotic "waking sleep", but that it is possible to transcend to a high...
1 memorial
Shuffrey, Leonard
Architect and architectural designer. His output is often found in decorative schemes with William Morris, Edward Ould, William De Morgan, and other preeminent Arts & Crafts and late Pre-Raphae...
1 memorial
Peter Vanderbank
Engraver. Probably born Paris. Came to London in 1674. Died at his brother's in Hertfordshire.
1 memorial
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