Colin St John Wilson designed the British Library with his wife, MJ Long. The article calls it the largest public building constructed in the United Kingdom in the 20th century. A campaign led by Dr George Wagner defeated plans to clear seven acres of Bloomsbury, and the library was built on the Euston Road site beside St Pancras station.
The Round Reading Room closed on October 25, 1997, and Elizabeth II opened the new building on June 25, 1998. A six-story glass tower at its center holds the King's Library, with 65,000 printed volumes and other material collected by George III between 1763 and 1820. In the piazza stands a bronze by Eduardo Paolozzi after William Blake's study of Isaac Newton.
The building is Grade I listed. Anyone with a genuine need can apply for a Reader Pass, and the Sir John Ritblat Gallery, with Beowulf and the Lindisfarne Gospels, is free every day.
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