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
Frederick Horniman
Tea merchant, benefactor and politician. Born Frederick John Horniman at Bridgwater, Somerset. He inherited his father's tea business, which by 1891 was described as the biggest tea firm in the wor...
Person, Benefactor, Commerce, Museums / Libraries, Politics & Administration, Race Issues, India, Sri Lanka
3 memorials
National Maritime Museum
One of a trio of Greenwich museums, the others being the Royal Observatory and the Queen's House.
Group, Armed Forces, History, Museums / Libraries, Transport
3 memorials
Frederic David Mocatta
Tycoon and philantropist. Born London into a Jewish family who came to England from Spain in the 1650s. Married but childless. Worked in the family gold-dealing business until 1874 when he gave ...
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
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
Previously viewed
1 memorial
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