Editing British Museum Reading Room (section)

=== British Museum Library ===
The Reading Room was officially opened on 2 May 1857 with a 'breakfast' (that included [[champagne]] and [[ice cream]]) laid out on the catalogue desks. A public viewing was held between 8 and 16 May, attracting over 62,000 visitors. Tickets to it included a plan of the library.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="BM site2">[https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/archives/i/invitation_to_a_private_view_o.aspx Invitation to a private view of the Round Reading Room], British Museum</ref>

Regular users had to apply in writing and be issued a reader's ticket by the Principal Librarian.<ref name=":0" /> During the period of the [[British Library]], access was restricted to registered researchers only; however, reader's credentials were generally available to anyone who could show that they were a serious researcher. The Reading Room was used by a large number of famous figures, including notably [[Sun Yat-sen]], [[Karl Marx]], [[Oscar Wilde]], [[Friedrich Hayek]], [[Marcus Garvey]], [[Bram Stoker]], [[Mahatma Gandhi]], [[Rudyard Kipling]], [[George Orwell]], [[George Bernard Shaw]], [[Mark Twain]], [[Vladimir Lenin]] (using the name Jacob Richter<ref name=":0" />),  [[Virginia Woolf]], [[Arthur Rimbaud]], [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]],<ref>Wolpert, Stanley ''Jinnah of Pakistan'', p. 13</ref> [[H. G. Wells]],<ref>{{citation|title=Footprint England |author= Charles Godfrey-Faussett|publisher=Footprint Travel Guides|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=l-eiweyYvyEC&dq=%22British+Museum+Reading+Room%22&pg=PA88|isbn=978-1-903471-91-3|pages=884|date=2004-05-01}}</ref> and [[Arthur Conan Doyle]].<ref name=":0" />

In 1973, the British Library Act 1972 detached the library department from the British Museum, but it continued to host the now separated British Library in the same Reading Room and building as the museum until 1997.

{{wide image|British Museum Reading Room Panorama Feb 2006.jpg|900px|align-cap=center|A [[panorama]] showing an almost 180-degree view of the interior of the Reading Room}}
[[File:The Reading Room at the British Museum - geograph.org.uk - 433966.jpg|thumb|right|The reading desks]]