JE 145

London

Tim

Friday, March 29 – Harrow on the Hill

The tours of London buildings continues. I have two booked today, both at The British Library. The first covers their holdings, and the second focuses on the building itself. Each tour lasted about 75 minutes and cost £10. There were about a dozen people in each tour.

With more than 150 million items in its collection, The British Library is the second largest library in the World, trailing only the Library of Congress. If you’re interested, here’s a link to a listing of the Top Ten.

The library is located next to the St Pancras Railway Station. It was a little busy on this Good Friday holiday morning.
A Eurostar train can be seen in the background.
St Pancras Renaissance Hotel (adjacent to the station)
The British Library (c. 1998). During construction, brick was sourced to match the neighboring St Pancras Hotel & Station (in the background).
A scale model of the library, showing the eight-story subterranean storage facility. (BTW, the underground storage is already filled up. An offsite location is now used)
An 18th century sculpture of Shakespeare.
The Humanities Reading Room. The reading rooms were closed to the public for the Good Friday holiday. A good time to be on the tour; we had them all to ourselves!
The Maps Reading Room. The celestial globe in the background is by Vincenzo Coronelli (c. 1693).
In the middle of the building is a six-story glass tower containing the King’s Library with 65,000 printed volumes along with other pamphlets, manuscripts and maps, all collected by King George III between 1763 and 1820.

The items below are displayed in the library’s Treasures Gallery. This was part of the guided tour, but the room is also open to the public during normal library hours.

The Moutier-Grandval Bible from around 830-840. Amazing!
I had to include this: It is entitled Shirin becomes Queen of Armenia (c. early 17th century). It tells of the romance between King Khusraw Parviz and Shirin, Queen of Armenia.
Shakespeare’s First Folio (c. 1623). Of the estimated 750 First Folios, only around 250 survive today. Five are at The British Library.
The Gutenberg Bible (c. 1455).
Leonardo Da Vinci, The Science of Weights (c. 1518). For you engineering nerds, The Science of Weights is known today as Statics.
Magna Carta (c. 1215). This is one of four surviving originals from 1215. Two are at The British Library.

This was a fun day exploring the library!

A pretty view of another library (this one the Harrow School’s) on my way back from the tube station.

Saturday, March 30 – Harrow on the Hill

My manic tours of various London buildings concludes today. I’m guessing you’re relieved by that statement. Apologies if I’ve bored you to death!

I’m back to the Palace of Westminster (The Houses of Parliament) for a rare treat – a tour of The Speaker’s House. This tour is only offered during the long Easter weekend, and occasionally during the summer when the speaker is away.

The house is three stories tall, with the top floor being the residence of the Speaker. The second floor is used for administrative purposes, and our tour covered the first floor. The rooms viewed were the Speaker’s Study, the Crimson Drawing Room, the Corner Drawing Room, the State Dining Room, and the State Bedroom. All were very opulent and contained portraits of past Speakers, as well as gifts from visiting dignitaries. The State Dining Room was especially impressive (as you can imagine).

The State Bedroom is meant to be the place where the monarch sleeps the night before their coronation in Westminster Abbey. Apparently though King Charles choose not to participate in this tradition (our guide said that the bed is very uncomfortable!)

The tour lasted 75 minutes. There were 14 of us, and the cost was £20. Here’s a link to UK Parliament’s website with more information on The Speaker’s House, if you’re interested.

As with the other tours in the Palace of Westminster, no photography was allowed.

Below are a couple photos from my visit to the Palace. I’m pretty sure I’ve posted similar pictures from this trip already, but I just can’t resist!

A less common view of the Palace from the west.
Past the ticket check gate and on the way to the (airport style) security screening area.
Now past the security tent.

As you can see, it was a beautiful day. I did a lot of walking, mainly in the area to the west of the Palace, avoiding the crowds around Westminster Bridge, Westminster Abbey and St. James’s Park.

Taking a break at Pimlico Gardens

Sunday, March 31 – Harrow on the Hill

Ended up staying on the Hill today. Pretty much low key. Did go for a walk though!

Monday, April 1 – Harrow on the Hill

Busy day! Laundry, flat cleaning, 1st quarter financial stuff, journal entry, and prep for my trip tomorrow.

I’m heading to Slovakia and Austria for a few days. No laptop again. I’m back on Sunday, so I’ll likely have the next entry posted on the following Tuesday or Wednesday. Have a great week!

2 thoughts on “JE 145”

  1. Tim the pictures of the British library are incredible specially the architecture. I also like the facade of the Harrow library. Looking forward for your Austria and Slovakia entries.

    Reply

    1. When built the library wasn’t to everyone’s tastes (including then Prince Charles). But it later became the youngest ever Grade I listed building in the UK. Thanks for the note Georgina!

      Reply

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