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A courtyard opened to the light
Great Court ↗After admission at Great Russell Street, continue straight into the Great Court on Level 0. Stop beyond the entrance, with the circular Reading Room ahead of you.
Follow the roof grid around the circular Reading Room.
Look up at the glass roof, then follow its steel lines towards the round building in the middle. The Reading Room was already here when Foster and Partners designed this covered court. The new roof had to meet a circle at its centre and the older museum buildings around its edges.
This was once a much harder place to move through. From the 1850s, book stores filled the courtyard around the Reading Room. Both belonged to the Museum’s library department. The round room was a working library, surrounded by the books its readers needed.
The library department moved to St Pancras in 1997. Its departure made it possible to clear the stores and open the courtyard again. Queen Elizabeth II opened the Great Court in December 2000. The roof brought daylight into a space visitors could now cross.
You can use the round Reading Room as a reference throughout the visit. Gallery entrances, cafés and information desks sit around it. Our route stays on Level 0 and takes us through Egyptian sculpture, Assyrian palace reliefs and the Parthenon gallery before ending in the former King’s Library.
Follow the signs for Egyptian sculpture, Room 4, on the west side of the Great Court. Find the Rosetta Stone in its glass case.
