I was in London last week and on a friend's suggestion visited the British Library. Has anyone on the board ever been there? I wouldn't rank it as a top-10 sight for the city as a whole, but for book lovers there were definitely some items of interest. There's currently an exhibition on how the land shaped British writers, which featured an original painting of the Hill in Hobbiton by Tolkien and a couple of pages of handwritten material from The Philosopher's Stone (it was England, so they used Rowling's original British title) along with a bunch of other items. Interesting, but I was actually overall more impressed by the permanent exhibition featuring a bunch more historical texts. The most impressive was a 3rd version of the Magna Carta (written in 1225, 10? years after the original, which was being "rested"), but there were also a bunch of gorgeously decorated texts from the 1400s-1600s when books were clearly considered works of visual art. The Shakespeare section didn't contain any originals (it said they've all been lost) but did make me want to read a couple of the plays, such as The Merry Wives of Windsor.
I'm not sure if there are other libraries anywhere that have similarly impressive collections, but if any of my fellow bibliophiles are in London looking for something to do it's probably worth an hour or two of your time.
I've been and had a wonderful time. I was surprised that it is not publicized more. The amount of their historical religious items was interesting-along with Jane Austin's writing desk and Mozart's musical scribbles.
When I was there the special exhibit was Sci Fi and it was awesome. They had original books, scripts (like original Who and Trek) and they had a full sized TARDIS that I got in trouble for trying to take a picture of.
I've been and had a wonderful time. I was surprised that it is not publicized more. The amount of their historical religious items was interesting-along with Jane Austin's writing desk and Mozart's musical scribbles.
When I was there the special exhibit was Sci Fi and it was awesome. They had original books, scripts (like original Who and Trek) and they had a full sized TARDIS that I got in trouble for trying to take a picture of.
Sounds like they probably have a pretty good rotation of special exhibitions - I would have enjoyed that Sci Fi exhibit, too.
I think maybe it's not publicized more just because it's not as flashy as some of the other sights, and there are really a lot of sights to see in London. I mean, as much as I love books if I were making recommendations for someone going for the first time I'd still list the British Museum, Westminster Abbey, and the Tower of London before the library.
I love the British Library. I have a readers card and I've worked there a few times, and it's such a beautiful and amazing place with the best collection of cool old stuff. Their exhibits are really cool, too--I didn't see the British writers one, but they had an amazing one on maps a few years back.