Books Magazine

Library of Birmingham, UK #BriFri

By Joyweesemoll @joyweesemoll

British Isles Friday logoWelcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British-themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!


After our big day at the Black Country living history museum, we needed gentler activities for Day 9 of our trip. The Library of Birmingham has a new building with interesting architecture, inside and out.

The Library of Birmingham

Makes a big statement in the landscape!

Interior of The Library of Birmingham

The interior radiates from this rotunda with escalators and books.

Roof garden

A roof-top garden area

The library’s specially-designed room for its Shakespeare collection was built in 1882. Since then, the whole room has been moved twice. The collection outgrew the space long ago, but the beautiful woodwork is too beautiful to abandon, so the room has its own special space on the 9th floor of the new library.

Shakespeare Memorial Room, Library of Birmingham

Shakespeare Memorial Room

The round building in this view is the Rotunda, where our hotel room was.

View of the Rotunda

View from the Library of Birmingham

That evening, we went to a movie at The Electric Cinema, the UK’s oldest working cinema. We saw Pride, a good heart-warming story. I’m glad we saw it there because I’m not sure it’s going to be released widely over here.


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