Great Court at the British Museum
Great Court at the British Museum
Start the tour inside the magnificent Great Court at the British Museum near Russell Square and Holborn tube stations. Designed by Foster + Partners, this two-acre space – enclosed by an enormous glass ceiling – was opened in 2000 and is the largest covered public square in Europe. In Robert Smirke’s original design for the museum, he had wanted the area to be a garden – but the space was lost in the 1850s when the Reading Room and a number of bookstacks were built to house the museum’s library department. It was only in 1997, when the library was moved to British Library building in St Pancras (a 20-minute walk away, if you have time), that plans were put in place to re-open the court to the public.
British Museum, Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London, UK
