| History |  |
The court has a tessellated glass roof designed by Buro Happold covering the entire court and surrounds the original circular British Museum Reading Room in the centre, now a museum. It is the largest covered square in Europe. The glass and steel roof is made up of 4878 unique steel members connected at 1566 unique nodes and 1,656 pairs of glass windowpanes making up 6100m2 of glazing. Each of a unique shape because of the undulating nature of the roof.
Controversially, some of the stone in the court is from France, rather than being Portland Stone from southern England as agreed in the original contract with the masons.
Within the Great Court, there are shops and a café. It is deliberately open for later than the British Museum itself. The court acts as a centrally linking point for the museum, somewhat like the Pyramid at the Louvre in Paris. |
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