BRITISH MUSEUM

INTRODUCTION
• Until recently, the neo-classical British Museum in London was relatively
unknown among the monuments of Europe.
• The British Museum Is Dedicated To Human History, Art And Culture, And
Is Located In The Bloomsbury Area Of London.
• The British Museum’s Designed By Architect Sir Robert Smirk In 1823
And Completed In 1852.
• The British Museum Was Established In 1753, Largely Based On The
Collections Of The Physician And Scientist Sir Hans Sloane.
• Although Original Designs Called For A Courtyard, The Centre Of The
Museum Was Changed To Be A Reading Room.
• In 1973, The British Library Act 1972 Detached The Library Department
From The British Museum, But It Continued To Host The Now Separated
British Library In The Same Reading Room And Building As The Museum
Until 1997
• The Other Important Architectural Developments Include The Round
Reading Room With Its Domed Ceiling And The Norman Foster Designed
Great Court Which Opened In 2000
• It included galleries for classical sculpture and Assyrian antiquities as
well as residences for staff.
GROUND FLOOR PLAN FIRST FLOOR PLAN

Dome

Portico

DESIGN SECTION Great court

• An historic building with Greek revival, neo-classical and modern
architectural features.
• Greek features on the building include the columns and pediment at the
South entrance
• Four Adjoining Wings (north, east, south and west wings). Pediment is decorated
• The original museum had four principal wings arranged around an open, by sculptures
two-acre (0.8-hectare), quadrangle-shaped courtyard. .
• The construction commenced around the courtyard with the East Wing Ionic Order
(King’s Library) in 1823–1828, followed by the North Wing in 1833–1838,
King Edward VII galleries & other galleries, Work was also progressing on Stair
the northern half of the West Wing (The Egyptian Sculpture Gallery)
1826–1831, with Montagu House demolished in 1842 to make room for
the final part of the West Wing, completed in 1846, and the South Wing
with its great colonnade, initiated in 1843 and completed in 1847, when FRONT ELEVATION
the Front Hall and Great Staircase were opened to the public MATERIAL
• The building was constructed using up-to-the-minute 1820 technology. • he public facing sections of the building were covered in a layer of Portland stone
• Built on a concrete floor, the frame of the building was made from cast • the perimeter walls and other parts of the building were built using Haytor granite from
iron and filled in with London stock brick. Dartmoor in South Devon.

NEO-CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE
READING ROOM EXTERIOR FEATURES
• The Reading Room stands at the heart of the Museum, in the centre of the • The external architecture of the Museum was designed
Great Court, Completed in 1857, to reflect the purpose of the building. The Ionic Order is 44
• it was hailed as one of the great sights of London and became a world famous • The monumental South entrance, with its stairs, Columns, 45 Ft (14 M)
centre of learning. colonnade and pediment, was intended to reflect the High, Closely Based On
• In 1846 Robert Smirke was replaced as the Museum's architect by his brother wondrous objects housed inside. Those Of The Temple Of
Sydney Smirke whose major addition was the round reading room 1854–1857. • The design of the columns has been borrowed from Athena Polias At Priene In
• Using cast iron, concrete, glass and the latest heating and ventilation systems, ancient Greek temples, and the pediment at the top of Asia Minor.
it was a masterpiece of mid-nineteenth century technology. the building is a common feature of classical Greek
• The room had a diameter of 140 feet (approximately 42.6m) and was inspired architecture.
by the domed Pantheon in Rome. • The east and west residences (to the left and right of
The Pediment, over the
the entrance) have a more modest exterior.
main entrance is
• The entablature (the entire horizontal area carried by
decorated by sculptures by
the columns) is composed of a tripartite architrave (the
Sir Richard Westmacott
lowest part of the entablature) with a blind frieze above
depicting The Progress of
(without sculptural decoration) and a ventilated cornice
Civilisation, consisting of
(dentils are the repeated blocks forming a pattern at
fifteen Allegorical figures,
the base of the cornice)—all running in an unbroken
installed in 1852.
chain around the whole length of the south portico.
GREAT COURT • The main entrance to the museum, with Greek temple The Coffered ceiling,
• The Queen Elizabeth II Great Court is a covered square at the centre of the style Portico. patterns and colours on
British Museum designed by the engineers Burro Happold and the the ceiling of the Weston
architects Norman Foster and Partners. & opened in 2000, INTERIOR Hall were borrowed from
• The Great Court is the most recent architectural intervention to the British classical Greek buildings,
Museum.
• The Weston Hall was designed by Sydney Smirke, who which would have been
took over from his brother, Sir Robert Smirke, in 1845.
• The refurbishment created a light and open space in an area that had brightly decorated.
previously been closed to the public.
• The vivid colours of the stones themselves created a
luminous interior that was further adorned with
• Contemporary influences ,including the installation of a transparent roof, were colourful designs. White Wing, White had
used along side traditional features of neoclassical architecture to construct the • The paper Mache interior of the dome repaired and the two requests about the
glass covered dome. original blue, cream and gold colour scheme reinstated. design of the building: that
• The roof is a glass and steel construction, built by an Austrian steelwork • The electric lamps in the entrance hall are replicas of it had a monumental
company, with uniquely shaped panes of glass the original lighting lamps in the Museum. entrance (the steps which
• The Museum was the first public building to be run up to the entrance)
electrically lit. and an inscription (which
• As part of the Great Court development the interior of is above the doorway).
the Reading Room was carefully restored.
• The floor of the entrance hall—the Weston hall—being The Detail Of The Roof
paved with york stone, the staircase balustrade and Structure, at its inner
ornamental vases carved from huddle stone, stone and edge, the meet roof the
the sides of the grand staircase lined with red drum shaped reading room
KING’S LIBRARY Aberdeen granite located not in ten exact
• The King's Library was a royal collection of books created by King George III centre of the courtyard, but
and donated to the nation. A gallery, named after the collection, was built at the 5m closer to the north
British Museum in 1827 to house them. side.
• It is the oldest room in the Museum and now home to the permanent exhibition
Enlightenment: The Round Reading
• The room for the King’s Library was the first wing of the new building to be Room which is still a
constructed (1823–1827). working library and from
• It was on a grand scale: 91m (300 feet) long, 12m (41 feet) high and 9m (30 the outset wanted to
feet) wide, with a central section 18m (58 feet) wide. express that connection. In
• Its great size called for the pioneering use of cast iron beams to support the the final design this was
ceiling achieved by cutting a
• The central section of the room was meant to consist of 12 columns made from KING’S LIBRARY WESTON HALL STAIRCASE series of slot windows that
Aberdeen granite. give views onto the book
• It was not originally intended to be a public room. stacks

NEO-CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE