Editing British Museum (section)

==Building==
[[File:British Museum from NE 2 (cropped).JPG|thumb|The museum's main entrance]]
The [[Greek Revival architecture|Greek Revival]] façade facing Great Russell Street is a characteristic building of Sir [[Robert Smirke (architect)|Robert Smirke]], with 44 columns in the [[Ionic order]] {{convert|45|ft|m|abbr=on}} high, closely based on those of the temple of [[Athena|Athena Polias]] at [[Priene]] in [[Asia Minor]]. The [[pediment]] over the main entrance is decorated by sculptures by Sir [[Richard Westmacott]] depicting ''The Progress of Civilisation'', consisting of fifteen [[Allegory|allegorical]] figures, installed in 1852.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Richard Westmacott's Pediment Sculptures for the British Museum |url=https://heni.com/talks/britishmuseum |access-date=2025-02-28 |website=HENI Talks}}</ref>

The construction commenced around the courtyard with the East Wing ([[King's Library|The King's Library]]) in 1823–1828, followed by the North Wing in 1833–1838, which originally housed among other galleries a reading room, now the Wellcome Gallery. Work was also progressing on the northern half of the West Wing (The Egyptian Sculpture Gallery) 1826–1831, with [[Montagu House, Bloomsbury|Montagu House]] demolished in 1842 to make room for the final part of the West Wing, completed in 1846, and the South Wing with its great colonnade, initiated in 1843 and completed in 1847, when the Front Hall and Great Staircase were opened to the public.<ref>Building the British Museum, Marjorie Caygill & Christopher Date 1999</ref> The museum is faced with [[Portland stone]], but the perimeter walls and other parts of the building were built using [[Haytor]] granite from Dartmoor in South Devon, transported via the unique [[Haytor Granite Tramway]].<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.es.ucl.ac.uk/department/collections/RockRoom/building.htm| title=Building London| publisher=[[University College London]]| access-date=4 July 2010| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091207201115/http://www.es.ucl.ac.uk/department/collections/RockRoom/building.htm| archive-date=7 December 2009| df=dmy-all}}</ref>
[[File:BM; 'MF' RM1 - The King's Library, Enlightenment 1 'Discovering the world in the 18th Century ~ View South.jpg|The Enlightenment Gallery at museum, which formerly held the [[King's Library]], 2007|thumb|left]]
[[File:BM; Archives - Impression of the proposed extension.jpg|thumb|left|Proposed British Museum Extension, 1906]]
[[File:BM WCEC July 2015.JPG|thumb|left|External view of the World Conservation and Exhibition Centre at the museum, 2015]]

In 1846 Robert Smirke was replaced as the museum's architect by his brother [[Sydney Smirke]], whose major addition was the [[British Museum Reading Room|Round Reading Room]] 1854–1857; at {{convert|140|ft|m}} in diameter it was then the second widest [[dome]] in the world, the [[Pantheon, Rome|Pantheon]] in Rome being slightly wider.

The next major addition was the White Wing 1882–1884 added behind the eastern end of the South Front, the architect being Sir [[John Taylor (architect)|John Taylor]].

In 1895, Parliament gave the museum trustees a loan of £200,000 to purchase from the Duke of Bedford all 69 houses which backed onto the museum building in the five surrounding streets – Great Russell Street, Montague Street, Montague Place, Bedford Square and Bloomsbury Street.<ref>Title deed of the 'perimeter properties' of The British Museum, BM Archives CA TD</ref> The trustees planned to demolish these houses and to build around the west, north and east sides of the museum new galleries that would completely fill the block on which the museum stands. The architect Sir [[John James Burnet]] was petitioned to put forward ambitious long-term plans to extend the building on all three sides. Most of the houses in Montague Place were knocked down a few years after the sale. Of this grand plan only the Edward VII galleries in the centre of the North Front were ever constructed, these were built 1906–14 to the design by J.J. Burnet, and opened by [[George V of the United Kingdom|King George V]] and [[Mary of Teck|Queen Mary]] in 1914. They now house the museum's collections of Prints and Drawings and Oriental Antiquities. There was not enough money to put up more new buildings, and so the houses in the other streets are nearly all still standing.

The [[Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen of Millbank|Duveen]] Gallery, sited to the west of the Egyptian, Greek & Assyrian sculpture galleries, was designed to house the Elgin Marbles by the American [[Beaux-Arts architecture|Beaux-Arts]] architect [[John Russell Pope]]. Although completed in 1938, it was hit by a bomb in 1940 and remained semi-derelict for 22 years, before reopening in 1962. Other areas damaged during [[World War II]] bombing included: in September 1940 two unexploded bombs hit the Edward VII galleries, the King's Library received a direct hit from a high explosive bomb, incendiaries fell on the dome of the Round Reading Room but did little damage; on the night of 10 to 11 May 1941 several incendiaries fell on the south-west corner of the museum, destroying the book stack and 150,000 books in the courtyard and the galleries around the top of the Great Staircase – this damage was not fully repaired until the early 1960s.<ref>pp. 65–66, Building the British Museum, Marjorie Caygill & Christopher Date 1999</ref>

[[File:British Museum Great Court roof.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[British Museum Reading Room|Reading Room]] and [[Queen Elizabeth II Great Court|Great Court]] roof, 2005]]
The [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]] Great Court is a covered square at the centre of the British Museum designed by the engineers [[Buro Happold]] and the architects [[Foster and Partners]].<ref>Norman Foster and the British Museum, Norman Foster, Deyan Sudjic & Spencer de Grey 2001</ref> The Great Court opened in December 2000 and is the largest covered square in Europe. The roof is a glass and steel construction, built by an Austrian steelwork company,<ref name="test">{{cite web| url=http://www.waagner-biro.at/references/#/period/from-2001/reference/the-british-museum/| title=British Museum Project| publisher=Waagner Biro| access-date=22 October 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110821155633/http://www.waagner-biro.at/references#/period/from-2001/reference/the-british-museum/| archive-date=21 August 2011| url-status=dead}}</ref> with 1,656 uniquely shaped panes of glass. At the centre of the Great Court is the Reading Room vacated by the British Library, its functions now moved to St Pancras.

Today, the British Museum has grown to become one of the largest museums in the world, covering an area of over 92,000&nbsp;m<sup>2</sup> (990,000 sq. ft).<ref name="britishmuseum.org">{{cite web |title=About us |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/management/about_us.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111213160703/http://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/management/about_us.aspx |archive-date=13 December 2011 |access-date=26 March 2013 |work=British Museum}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=April 2016}}<ref>[http://planningonline.camden.gov.uk/MULTIWAM/doc/Supporting%20Documents-2692368.pdf?extension=.pdf&id=2692368&location=VOLUME3&contentType=application/pdf&pageCount=1]{{dead link|date=January 2016}}</ref> In addition to 21,600&nbsp;m<sup>2</sup> (232,000 sq. ft)<ref name="museumsassociation.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.museumsassociation.org/news/26012011-cross-calls-for-new-debate-on-stored-collections |title=Cross calls for new debate on stored collections |publisher=Museums Association |date=26 January 2011 |access-date=26 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120526102156/http://www.museumsassociation.org/news/26012011-cross-calls-for-new-debate-on-stored-collections |archive-date=26 May 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> of on-site storage space, and 9,400&nbsp;m<sup>2</sup> (101,000 sq. ft)<ref name="museumsassociation.org" /> of external storage space. Altogether, the British Museum showcases on public display less than 1%<ref name="museumsassociation.org" /> of its entire collection, approximately 50,000 items.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=60974&CtNode=10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928061744/http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=60974&CtNode=10 |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 September 2007 |title=British Museum feels privileged to put exhibition in Taiwan |first1=Jennifer |last1=Huang |first2=Deborah |last2=Kuo |date=31 January 2007 |work=Taiwan Headlines |publisher=Government Information Office, Republic of China (Taiwan) |access-date=13 September 2010 }}</ref>

There are nearly one hundred galleries open to the public, representing {{convert|2|mi|km}} of exhibition space, although the less popular ones have restricted opening times. However, the lack of a large temporary exhibition space led to the £135&nbsp;million World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre to provide one and to concentrate all the museum's conservation facilities into one centre. This project was announced in July 2007, with the architects [[Richard Rogers|Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners]]. It was granted planning permission in December 2009 and was completed in time for the Viking exhibition in March 2014.<ref>{{cite news| first=Charlotte| last=Higgins| title=British Museum plans £100m complex for blockbusters| url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/heritage/story/0,,2118794,00.html| work=The Guardian| page=10| date=5 July 2007| access-date=5 July 2007| location=London| archive-date=25 August 2007| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070825193203/http://arts.guardian.co.uk/art/heritage/story/0,,2118794,00.html| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.designweek.co.uk/news/british-museum-unveils-new-135-million-wing/3038064.article| title=British Museum unveils new £135 million wing| work=[[Design Week]]| date=7 March 2014| access-date=27 June 2014| archive-date=13 July 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140713025049/http://www.designweek.co.uk/news/british-museum-unveils-new-135-million-wing/3038064.article| url-status=live}}</ref> In 2017, the World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre was shortlisted for the [[Stirling Prize]] for excellence in architecture.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Wainwright|first1=Oliver|title=Stirling prize 2017 shortlist: from a cool crowdfunded pier to a giant hole in the ground|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/jul/20/stirling-prize-2017-shortlist-glasgow-british-museum|access-date=22 September 2022|work=The Guardian|date=19 July 2017|archive-date=22 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922093848/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/jul/20/stirling-prize-2017-shortlist-glasgow-british-museum|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Blythe House]] in West Kensington was used by the museum for off-site storage of small and medium-sized artefacts until the British Museum Archeological Collection, a purpose-built storage facility near [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]], was opened in 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hardaker |first=Alistair |date=2024-06-06 |title=British Museum to progress Masterplan with official opening of BM_ARC |url=https://museumsandheritage.com/advisor/posts/british-museum-progresses-masterplan-with-official-opening-of-bm-arc/ |access-date=2025-02-21 |website=Museums + Heritage}}</ref> Another site Franks House in East London is used for storage and work on the "Early Prehistory" – [[Palaeolithic]] and [[Mesolithic]] – and some other collections.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/departments/prehistory_and_europe/contact_and_enquiries.aspx |title=Franks House |publisher=British Museum |access-date=15 January 2014 |archive-date=3 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120203002256/http://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/departments/prehistory_and_europe/contact_and_enquiries.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref>