'Reading Room of the Great Library at the British Museum seen from the Entrance', c1935. The circular Reading Room of the British Museum in central London was designed by Sydney Smirke (1798-1877). Construction began in 1854 and was completed in 1857. The Reading Room used to be the main reading room of the British Library. Famous users include Karl Marx, Lenin, Ghandi, Oscar Wilde, Rudyard Kipling and Virginia Woolf. From "Wonderful London, Volume 3", edited by Arthur St John Adcock. [The Fleetway House, London, c1935]