British Library

British Library is located next to St Pancras station. New, modern, almost Japanese style building. Photos allowed outside of galleries. Entry is free to the Sir John Ritblat Gallery inside which is where several of the Library's "treasures" are on display. Some of my faves in the Gallery were music scores by Mozart and Beethoven (in their hand), a number of old maps, The Gutenberg Bible, Leonardo da Vinci notebooks (mainly engineering type drawings), two of the four known copies of the Magna Carta, Jane Austen book in her hand and many others. No photos allowed.

When I was there, the Library also had a special exhibit of its collection on Henry VIII in honor of the 500th anniversary since his coronation. This was a very extensive collection and quite impressive. There was a charge to view. They had a number of letters by Henry VIII on display (he had quite nice handwriting), as well as letters from his wives (including Catherine and Anne Boelyn), his marital records, divorce records, baptism records and miliary/legal records during this reign. Amazing how great of shape the records are considering their age. The exhibit was quite large and worth a view. No photos allowed here either obviously.

The Library is quite convenient to tour and I'd highly recommend this hidden gem.

Even if you only have an hour, visit the British Library, next to (west-side of) St. Pancras station. The Sir John Ritblat Gallery is what you want to see ... Magna Carta, Gutenburg Bible, ancient texts, scientists notebooks/writings, Shakespeare texts, Beatles texts, etc. It is all displayed nicely, in a subdued lit room. I and my two teenagers visited the Library on Sunday, June 29, 2008 for about 2 hours and it wasn't crowded at all - relatively few people there. If a person could visit only one thing in London, it would have to be the Tower of London (16 pounds/person). After that, it would have to be the British Library and the British Museum - I rate both about the same (highly!) ... and they are both free (though, I donated a few pounds).

Well, it's probably not a secret, but most tourists don't come here. I enjoyed it MORE than the Bristish Museum. It was uncanny -- Gutenberg Bibles, Da Vinci Notebooks, Shakespeare notebooks, Magna Carta, the list goes on and on! I was blown away by the amount of treasures in the room. If you love history, come here before anywhere else.