The British Library holds a wealth of resources relating to the history of the UK and Ireland, from printed books, newspapers and pamphlets to manuscript diaries, letters and maps.

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Reading Room Paul Grundy

St Pancras Reading Rooms

At St Pancras we have 11 Reading Rooms, each specialising in a different subject area or type of material and with different opening hours. In our Reading Rooms you can:

  • Consult books, journals and other items from our collections
  • Access a wide range of electronic resources and electronic journals
  • Consult subject guides, bibliographies and other research aids

If you need help, please ask our Reference Specialists at the enquiry desks or contact the Reference Service.

We offer a range of free Reader sessions and 1-2-1 consultations to help you make the best use of the Library's collections.

You’ll need a Reader Pass

Opening hours for all Reading Rooms

Over 500 collection items from the British Library and institutions across Europe

Series of scenes of the first English Civil War, progressing from a meeting of conspirators to the execution of the king

Print of scenes from the first English Civil War

Death warrant of Charles I, a wide document which contains a handwritten statement, wax seals and 59 signatures

The death warrant of Charles I

29 January 1648/9

Illustrated pamphlet of the National Union of Womens Suffrage Societies, depicting a tree with branches showing the society's regionality

NUWSS pamphlets

Blog posts

Recording of the week: Listening to Sun Ra in the year 4000

Monday, May 22, 2023

Publicity shot of Sun Ra, 1973. Distributed by Impulse! Records and ABC/Dunhill Records. Photographer uncredited. Public domain. Throughout his long career the pianist, composer, bandleader and Afrofuturist pioneer Sun Ra (1914-1993) released over one hundred albums, many under his own...

Recording of the week: Peter Rickenback on being a fugitive in Europe

Monday, March 27, 2023

The British Library recently launched a new online learning resource, Voices of the Holocaust, as part of Unlocking Our Sound Heritage. The new website features a curated selection of audio clips, pulled mainly from four collections of oral history interviews...

Recording of the week: Hanns Alexander on being a Nazi hunter after World War Two

Monday, March 20, 2023

On 11 March 1946 Hanns Alexander arrested Rudolf Höss, a German SS officer who was the longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz. Hanns, who was born in Berlin in 1917, fled Nazi persecution in the late 1930s because he was Jewish. He...

From vocal to visual, with family scraps

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Artist Sophie Herxheimer, creator of the artwork for the British Library’s new Voices of the Holocaust website, reflects on her approach to contextualising and representing the voices of Holocaust survivors. This collection of interviews with Holocaust survivors encompasses themes of...

Latest modern history blog posts