The keeper at Highgate had expressed his distaste for the architecture of The British Library, calling it a let down compared to Britain's other great architectural triumphs. However, I beg to differ - the geometric brick conundrum that is The British Library is as it should be .. you are drawn into its vaults and modern spaces as might an ant seeking the sugary archives in a well tendered ant farm.
The first thing that draws me is a ghost story exhibition, prominently featuring Dickens. Charles Dickens drew upon the supernatural in many of his stories (A Christmas Carol being the most famous example), but forever remained a sceptic, going so far as to enter into debates with ghost societies of the day. There are some hilarious posters in the exhibition advertising shows exploiting the ghost mania that gripped Victorian England. The Victorians were very fond of ouija boards, seances and contacting the after life through mediums. Dickens was fascinated by the supernatural but remained ambivalent to its existence. However, this didn't stop him writing many an eerie tale.
What was to be a quiet day rapidly intensifies when I enter the Sir John Ritblat Gallery - rooms that house one of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks, a first folio of Shakespeare, manuscripts of Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn and Mozart, a Gutenberg Bible and, of course, the Magna Carta. Beatles fans will swoon over original handwritten lyrics by the Fab Four. A couple of hours is spent feeding my mind in the Ritblat rooms before it can take no more - I grab some tea in the library cafe.
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