British Museum Round Reading Room 1997

A rare bird's-eye view of the Round Reading Room of the British Museum. To enable a team to investigate the techniques and materials used in the room's construction in 1857, an 80 ft high cherry picker crane was manouvered into the world-famous "Round" reading room (the dome has a diameter of 43 metres - larger than that of St Paul's Cathedral and St Peter's, Rome) this photograph was taken from the vantage point of the cherry picker. As part of the Great Court project, the museum will restore the reading room to a state closely resembling its original appearance, which will be undertaken between March 1998 and the year 2000. Photo by Ben Curtis/PA.