British Museum Reading Room - Current Use

Current Use

Following the Library collection's move to the new site, the old Reading Room was opened to the public in 2000, following renovation as part of the construction of the Great Court. It houses a modern information centre, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Centre and a collection of books on history, art, travel, and other subjects relevant to the museum's collections, on open shelves.

In 2006, the British Museum announced its plans to modify the Reading Room to house a temporary exhibition entitled 'The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army': this modification was designed by the London-based exhibition design company Metaphor. This has involved building a new floor above the existing reading desks. It will revert to its former use in 2012. Details of the exhibitions that have been held in the Reading Room are:

• The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army (13 September 2007 - 6 April 2008)
• Hadrian: Empire and Conflict (24 July - 27 October 2008)
• Shah ʿAbbas: The Remaking of Iran (19 February - 14 June 2009)
• Montezuma: Aztec Ruler (24 September 2009 – 24 January 2010)
• Italian Renaissance drawings (22 April – 25 July 2010)
• Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead: Journey Through the Afterlife (4 November 2010 -6 March 2011)
• Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe (23 June - 9 October 2011)

The general library for visitors (Paul Hamlyn Library) has moved to a room accessible through nearby Room 2, but will close permanently from 13 August 2011. This is an earlier library that has also had distinguished users, including Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Thackeray, Robert Browning, Giuseppe Mazzini, Charles Darwin and Charles Dickens.