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The British Museum Reading Room, situated in the centre of the Great Court of the British Museum, used to be the main reading room of the British Library. This function has now been moved to the new British Library building at St. Pancras, but the Reading Room remains in its original form.Designed by Sydney Smirke on a suggestion by the Library's Chief Librarian Anthony Panizzi, the Reading Room was in continual use from 1857 until its closure in 1997. 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 Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde, Mohandas Gandhi, Rudyard Kipling, Vladimir Lenin and H. G. Wells.
Following the move to the new site, the old Reading Room was opened to the public in 2000.
Much of the action of David Lodge's 1965See also 1964 in literature, other events of 1965, 1966 in literature, list of years in literature. Events Frank Herbert's Dune wins the first ever Nebula Award The Magus John Fowles is published. New Books The Autobiography of Malcolm X Alex Haley & Malc novel The British Museum Is Falling DownThe British Museum Is Falling Down ( 1965) is a comic novel by David Lodge about a 25 year-old poverty-stricken student of English literature who, rather than working on his thesis (entitled "The Structure of Long Sentences in Three Modern English Novels" takes place in the old Reading Room.
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Grade I listed buildings
