As part of our series celebrating Camden at 60, Camden Guide Julie Conway explores another Camden icon, the British Library
2023 saw the 50th anniversary of the British Library. Its original construction was instigated by an Act of Parliament in 1972. The purpose of the act as written details “a view to the establishment for the United Kingdom of a national library, to be known as “the British Library, consisting of a comprehensive collection of books, manuscripts, periodicals, films and other recorded matter, whether printed or otherwise”.
The British Library was established to consolidate 3 national institutions; the British Museum, the National Central Library and the National Lending Library for Science and Technology, which at the time, was spread over 17 buildings and housed various collections of antiquities, including some with origins dating back 3,000 years. All of this was to be gathered under a single governing body, under a single roof and a further bonus within the newly formed Borough of Camden. The chosen site was the old St Pancras Station on Euston Road, 9½ acres. They had purchased extra land just in case of further development but, as we have read in a previous article, this was used for the Crick Institute on Euston Road. Before you enter the library, you can see the new with the old, St Pancras Hotel towering in the background, then you walk past Eduardo Paolozzi’s large bronze sculpture of nude Sir Isaac Newton, from a William Blake print showing Newton turning away from nature to concentrate on his books.
When you enter the library, there is so much to do it’s hard to know where to start. Here is just some of what it has to offer:
- Records of more than 11 million inventions, as well as technical and scientific publications. A particular highlight is the Science Reference Library, which includes an important collection of literature on world patents.
- The British Institute of Recorded Sound, which has archives of over 6 million recordings, including a chant from the 10th century.
- The Newspaper Library, which is part of the Reference division, one of the most comprehensive in Britain used by scholars internationally.
- 10 million printed books and large collections of Western, Oriental manuscripts, charts, rolls, seals, maps, music, Greek, Latin and Government papers worldwide.
- The Kings Library, formerly George III’s library that was donated to the British Museum by George IV himself. It is 60,000 volumes all on its own and is one of the more stunning displays to be found on the ground floor. (Pictured below)
Collections from:
- The Royal Library, a gift from George II.
- David Garrick (1717 – 1779) Actor, Playwright, Theatre Manager early printed editions of English drama.
- Joseph Banks (1743 – 1820) British Scientist, natural history specimens, books and papers.
- Official records, private papers, manuscripts etc of East India Company and India office from 1600 – 1947
Other interesting facts:
- The Largest library in the world engaged in lending between libraries and other corporate organisations, access to millions of books.
- Is currently making efforts to move into the digital age, with 100 million items already having been made available digitally. In 2012, it was agreed that a shared digital infrastructure, the Digital Library Service (DLS), would be developed by the British Library. This allows the library to collect and preserve approximately 4.8 million sites containing 1 billion web pages in a digital memory.
- One of 5 libraries in the UK that receives a copy of every British publication, due to the Copyright Act of 1842.
As for the philatelists, 80,000 items can be viewed in display frames, and of course there is the Penny Black Printing Press on display. (Pictured below)
There are two more important people that need to be mentioned. The first is William Henry Fox Talbot (1800 – 1877), the British Inventor of Photography in 1834. Throughout his life, he had amassed a collection of equipment, correspondence and, quite bizarrely, Egyptian funerary objects, all of which was donated to the British Library by one of his descendants. Much of this collection is now considered to be some of the library’s oldest pieces. Referring to his photography, Talbot was quoted saying “I do not claim to have perfected an art but to have commenced one, the limits of which it is not possible at present to exactly ascertain”
The second person was William Caxton, who brought the first printing press to England in 1476, which can also be seen in the British Library. (Pictured below) Making a book in the 15th century involved several skills, including papermaking, woodcutting, printing and bookbinding. The printing press below would have been able to produce 250 sheets of identical text per hour.
It blows my mind walking into the library, can you imagine what William Henry Fox Talbot and William Caxton would think if they could see what had become of their inventions.
26.5 million people visited the British Library during their 50th anniversary year.
Very sadly, the British Library recently received an unwelcome visitor. A hacker group attacked the online information system, affecting almost every aspect of the public service.
They demanded a ransom of 20 bitcoin, approximately £596,000 to restore stolen data. The British Library refused to pay, which resulted in the website being down for 1 month, and has taken 1 year to restore the service, they have used the experience to warn other organisations to plan and protect themselves
To finish with positive news, there was an announcement in March of a £1.1 billion development of the British Library to include new exhibition galleries, event spaces and new learning, business and innovation facilities.
ALL IN THE BOROUGH OF CAMDEN
Want to see more, you know where to go … www.bl.uk
Julie Conway