British Library
Magna Carta, Beowulf, and the Lindisfarne Gospels all sit in one free gallery.
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The Sir John Ritblat Gallery shows Britain's founding charters and literary manuscripts free of charge, next to St Pancras station. It's the UK's national library, holding over 200 million items.
What to look for
- The central six-storey glass tower holding King George III's 65,000-volume King's Library.
- Eduardo Paolozzi's 1995 bronze Newton on the piazza facing Euston Road, based on William Blake's study of Isaac Newton.
- In the Sir John Ritblat Gallery, a room devoted solely to Magna Carta, alongside the Lindisfarne Gospels and a Gutenberg Bible.
The gallery is free; the reading rooms need a Reader Pass, open to any researcher with a permanent address.
British Library is one of 40 sights worth the detour in London, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the London pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in London
- British MuseumThe room where a dead language got its voice back — and you walk in for free.
- Buckingham PalaceThe balcony where a whole country turns up to watch a family wave — with 775 rooms behind it.
- Westminster AbbeyNearly every English monarch since 1066 has been crowned on the same worn patch of floor.
- Big BenThe clang in a thousand establishing shots comes from a cracked bell that's rung slightly off-key since 1859.
- Tower of LondonWilliam the Conqueror's keep turned royal prison, where two queens lost their heads and the Crown Jewels still sit under guard.
- Tower BridgeA Victorian drawbridge dressed as a Gothic castle, its roadway still splitting open for passing ships.