http://www.bl.uk/
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/inrrooms/readingrooms.html
The British Library in London was a controversial building. The original library was part of the British Museum with the main reading room being the British Museums reading room which is still in use. The new library was designed to both blend in with the beautiful listed St Pancras station next door, to be very functional and to help regenerate the once seedy St Pancras/Kings Cross Area which was once more famous for prostitution and other such unsavoury activities.
The Library opened in 1998 and since this time has become a much loved institution due to it's functionality and it being a driving force in terms of investment in this area of London, with a £600 million Medical Research Centre, the Francis Crick Institution currently being built next door to the library, massive investment in St Pancras International next door (and train journey times between London and Paris set to be cut to less than 2 hours), whilst the whole Kings Cross Area as well as the station are currently undergoing massive redvelopment.
http://www.crick.ac.uk/
http://www.kingscrosscentral.com/
http://stpancras.com/
This contrasts with the fortunes of the French National Library, a building designed to shout it's presence as a moument to the late President Mitterrand, and which has been criticised for being windwept, unwelcoming and not meeting the functions of the public it serves. The Parisan Bibliothèque nationale has been plagued with problems not least the fact that they had to buy blinds after they realised the sun streaming through the windows was ruining the books, whilst the windswept space between the French Libraries four main buildings has also been widely criticised.
http://www.studio-international.co.u...sh_library.asp
http://www.timeout.com/paris/attract...ois-mitterrand
The Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris -
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It should however be noted that despite some criticism of it's new building, France's BnF has an amazing collection and is without doubt one of the greatest libraries in the world
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The British Library -
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Historian David Professor Starkey at the British Libraries 500th Anniversary of Henry VIII Exhibition
http://www.bl.uk/henry
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Business and IP Centre
http://www.bl.uk/bipc/
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The real star of this area is St Pancras and not the British Library, and the Library was designed with this in mind does, not wishing to detract from the beautiful gothic station and it's surroundings.
