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Click on the headings to find out more:
Known as the city's most learned quarter, Bloomsbury plays host
to the British Museum, London University and the British Library,
(the Mecca for historians from around the world). Originally
named after the Blemunds, medieval landowners, this district
was not developed until the 1660's, when it became a fashionable
place to live for the Dukes of Bedford and the Russell family.
The British Museum is undoubtedly recognised as one of the world's greatest museums, and definitely worth a visit. Funds were originally
secured by an Act of Parliament in 1753 to purchase the Harleian collection of manuscripts and Sir Hans Sloane's collection, (the cornerstones for family research). In 1759, the British Museum, then housed in Montagu House, Bloomsbury was opened to the
public. The nineteenth century saw an influx of antiquities enter the museum, spoils of war such as the Rosetta stone,
"presented" by the mad king George III after the defeat of Napoleon in 1801. The Elgin Marbles, "acquired" by Lord Elgin were
presented in 1816, having been bought for the nation for £35,000. The present building was started in 1823 and took 30 years
to complete. The latest edition to this magnificent structure is the Great Court, opened in December 2000.
Over the past 200 years, the library in the British Museum had become one of the largest in the world, and there was no more room!
In 1998, after 15 years and £500 million of public money, the British Library was opened to the public. The three
exhibition galleries are open to the public and host many wonderful displays. The reading rooms, however, which contain a copy of most
items printed in the United Kingdom, (books, periodicals, maps and printed music), due to the British Museums privilege of legal deposit,
(they were meant to received a copy of everything printed!), is only accessible to those lucky few with a British Library Readers Ticket,
(very difficult to obtain). The newspapers from the British Museum are now available, (for those with a Readers Ticket), at the Newspaper
Library reading rooms at Collingdale in northwest London.
Those interested in Dickens should take some time to visit the Dickens House. Although 15 houses around London are attributed
to being "where Charles Dickens lived", (Blue Plaques abound), this charming house contains several first editions, letters and
other memorabilia. The drawing room has been restored to its original Regency style.
Clerkenwell Green, built as a Welsh Charity School in 1737 became the headquarters for the Social Democratic Federation press, where
Lenin edited seventeen editions of the Bolshevik paper Iska in 1902-03. It has now become the home of the Marx Memorial Library, maintained,
as it was when Lenin was hard at work.
The Society of Genealogists is located in the Charterhouse Buildings, Clerkenwell, and is truly a gold mine of information for a family historian.
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