The Design and Construction of the British Library

The British Library at St Pancras, the major public monument built in the United Kingdom in the twentieth century, opened to the public in April 1998. Professor Sir Colin St John Wilson has spent the greater part of his working life on the project from 1962 onwards when various schemes for a building adjacent to the British Museum were proposed, through to the completion phase of the present design. Formerly Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge, and the author of two important books on the history and theory of twentieth-century architecture, he is uniquely placed to give both an account of the development of the design concept of the building and to tell the story of its construction. No other project in Britain since the building of St Paul's Cathedral (which also took thirty-six years to reach completion) is comparable in time-scale or the magnitude of controversy surrounding it. This book reveals how Professor Wilson and his team responded to successive changes in the Brief, whilst determinedly maintaining a commitment to the very highest quality in all aspects of a building designed to last 250 years. Illustrated with many original drawings and specially commissioned photographs, it will appeal to anyone interested in modern architecture.