BOOK II.

Chapter I.

Rome, and that the leading ideas of this plan have been borrowed for the existing building. The project, it Libraries built. seems, was first submitted to Lord Ellesmere's Commission; then (in Nov. 1849, and at Lord Ellesmere's suggestion) to the Trustees, but without result; and was at length published in The Builder of the 22nd June, 1850.

Of the long correspondence which ensued upon a mention of the new building by Lord John Russell in the House of Commons (in the course of a conversation upon the Estimates), and which led eventually to the publication of Mr. Hosking's Remarks, this one sentence from a letter of Mr. Sydney Smirke will here suffice:-"I recollect," he writes, "seeing your plans at a meeting of the Trustees .... shortly after you sent them. When, long subsequently, Mr. Panizzi shewed me his sketch for a plan of a new Reading Room, I confess it did not remind me of your's; the purposes of the two plans and the treatment and construction were so different." Mr. Hosking's scheme, in fact, was to form a "grand central hall for ... sculpture;' Mr. Panizzi's, to form precisely the noble central Reading Room which has been attained. Of the superior architectural effect of Mr. Hosking's Rotunda there would, probably, be little difference of opinion, were that the point at issue.

But be this as it may, there can be no question that the plan has been carried out in a manner which reflects the highest credit both on Mr. Panizzi, as its effectual author and zealous promoter,-in the face of

BOOK II.

Chapter I.

698

many difficulties, and on Mr. Sydney Smirke, as the Libraries built. Architect who has practically realized it.

Details of the

new Reading

The diameter of the Reading Room is 140 feet, and Room, British its height 106 feet. This room, and all the apartments

Museum.

and passages appropriated to the Public, are on a level
with the principal floor of the main building. It is
lighted by twenty windows, at the springing of the
dome, and by a glazed aperture in the crown of it, 40

BOOK II.

Chapter I.

feet in diameter. In due time this magnificent dome will, it may be hoped, be appropriately decorated by Libraries built. sculpture as well as by painting. Two tiers of galleries for books extend beneath the windows, and the entire wall below them is similarly cased.

The space which the Reading Room contains is about a million and a quarter cubic feet. Ample provision has been made for the gradual and proper renewal of this vast volume of air, by grated openings in the floor connected with the external air by horizontal trunks beneath the surface of the floor; by a series of louvred openings at the springing of the vaulted roof, and another series near its summit; and to prevent the descent of cold air from the glazed vault on to the heads of readers, a circle of hot-water pipes is carried along the level of the springing of the vault. All the skylights, lanterns, and windows throughout the building are double. That part of the edifice which is between the main structure and the new dome, is covered with a flat roof, supported externally by a brick wall surrounding the whole building, and internally by iron pillars. The exterior surface of the dome is covered with copper, and the building is throughout floored with slate, except the Reading Room, which has an oaken floor embedded, in stucco, on stone. This oak floor and a few doors appear to be the only parts of the structure which are inflammable. The doors are covered with kamptulicon. The galleries and staircases (which latter are always within forty feet of each other) are of perforated cast iron and slate, and the

BOOK II. Chapter I.

British Museum.

entire building is warmed by hot-water pipes. The glass Libraries built. used for the skylights is of great strength, that of the Library of the book-galleries and smaller rooms weighing twenty-one ounces to the superficial foot, and that of the ReadingRoom (which is ground glass) thirty ounces. The entire quantity of glass is about 60,000 superficial feet. If blinds should be found necessary for summer use, it is proposed to place them on the outside. A large firemain is carried along an external gallery around the dome. The amount for which this building has been erected and furnished, is about £150,000.1 The accommodation which, when fully shelved, it will afford for books is estimated to extend to nearly a million of volumes. Some details as to the fittings and furniture will be found in a subsequent chapter. An exterior view of this fine room the reader has before him on the opposite page.

2

It may not be without interest or advantage to add to this account of the most important Library-building lately erected in the old world, a description of two other edifices which have been very recently completed in the new;—the one, the Astor Library at New York;

The first estimate was £86,000, including fittings. An alteration was afterwards made, by which increased accommodation was obtained for 200,000 volumes, and an additional expenditure necessitated of £12,000; and to this, £8000 was subsequently added for additional bookcases; making the total estimated cost £106,000. Subsequent extensions and improvements have raised this sum to nearly £150,000.

The Builder, 24 March, 1855;-Copies of all Communications respecting the enlargement of the buildings of the British Museum, ordered by the House of Commons, 1852-1858.