Latest library announcements:
Library events during Architecture Week 15-24 June 2007
Free RIBA Library access
The RIBA British Architectural Library will be freely open to all during Architecture Week (normally £10 to non-RIBA members). For Opening times see
Contact, visit, join|
O Brave New World – architecture and post-war optimism on London’s South Bank (walking tour)
Sunday June 24 15.00
Architectural walking tour of some of the key buildings of London’s South Bank led by RIBA staff, culminating in a tour of the newly refurbished Royal Festival Hall led by Allies & Morrison project architects. 3pm start with tour of the Royal Festival Hall to begin at 5pm. Meet at the north end (St Paul’s end) of the Millennium Bridge (nearest tube St Paul’s on the Central Line) at 2.45-3pm.
We are also offering the option of a guided visit to the exhibition 'Royal Festival Hall Revival', Architecture Exhibition Gallery (Room 128a), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, SW7, led by Dr Irena Murray, Director of the British Architectural Library. 1pm start; meet at entrance to the Architecture Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, 12.50-1pm. Transport provided between the Victoria and Albert Museum and the tour starting point at the Millennium Bridge.
Both the walking tour and guided visit of exhibition are free. However, as numbers are limited, please reserve a place by calling 020 7307 3755, stating whether you would like to join either one or both events. Please be ready to leave your email address or postal address so that a letter can be sent to you confirming your place.
V&A+RIBA Architecture Open Day
Saturday 23 June 10.30-16.30
A full day of events is being held in the RIBA's Study Rooms at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Full details on the main
Architecture Week| website.
26 March 2007
An inspirational new space, the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning through Design (CETLD) Bene Education Room opens on Tuesday 3 April 2007 in the British Architectural Library at the RIBA headquarters in London.
Charles Robert Cockerell’s tribute to Christopher Wren
Copyright Sotheby's
British Architectural Library acquires Charles Robert Cockerell’s tribute to Christopher Wren
The RIBA Trust is delighted to announce that the British Architectural Library has purchased “A Tribute to Sir Christopher Wren”, the most important drawing by Charles Robert Cockerell RA ever to come to the market. The drawing brings together all the buildings that in the early 19th century were believed to be by Wren into one vast urban landscape.
The BAL purchased the drawing at Sotheby’s auction house at a cost of £98,800, and gratefully acknowledges that the acquisition was made possible by grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund (£37,200), The Art Fund (£31,026) (the UK’s leading independent art charity) and the balance from the British Architectural Library Trust and the RIBA Drawings Endowment Fund. Located in the RIBA Library’s Drawings Collection at the V&A, the drawing will join work by both Cockerell and Wren already held in the collection. Read the
press release|
British Architectural Library online records join Europe's largest specialised metacatalogue
The online records of the British Architectural Library have been uploaded on the largest European specialised metacatalogue VKK| The library has contributed to a pool of more than 3.5 million bibliographic entries, the first British library to participate in this prestigious research project funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to promote simultaneous access to distinguished European collections in art and architecture. It joins such august institutions as the Heidelberg University Library, the Rijksmuseum, Bibliotheque des Arts Decoratifs, Paris and others. Joining the VKK will give a much higher visibility to library collections internationally, and will promote the cultural assets of the RIBA Trust in the future.
Codex Stosch
Image: Lyon Turnbull, Fine Art Auctioneers
British Architectural Library acquires ‘outstanding’ Raphael-related archive
The RIBA Trust is delighted to announce that the British Architectural Library has purchased the Codex Stosch, one of the most significant 16th century collections of architectural drawings of the great buildings of ancient Rome, produced by Giovanni Battista da Sangallo (1496-1548), a member of Raphael’s circle. It complements the drawings of Roman buildings by Andrea Palladio (1508-1589) acquired by the RIBA in 1894.
The Library purchased the Codex at a price of £274,417. It gratefully acknowledges the following for their respective contributions that made this important acquisition possible; the British Architectural Library Trust (£150,000), The Art Fund (previously the National Art Collectors Fund) (£100,000) and the balance from the Library’s Drawings Endowment Fund.
Read the press release|
Miscelanea Structura Curiosa manuscript loaned by the Earl of Rosse
The British Architectural Library is very grateful to the Earl of Rosse for kindly depositing on loan to the library the original manuscript of Miscelanea Structura Curiosa by the Irish architect Samuel Chearnley (1717 or 1718 - 1749), dating from 1745.
The volume contains over eighty drawings of garden follies, fountains and architecture, mostly by Samuel Chearnley. If it had been published at the time, it would have comprised the first architectural treatise solely devoted to follies and garden buildings anywhere in Europe. Sadly, Chearnley died at the age of twenty-nine, shortly after dating the last of the drawings; his treatise was not published and none of the designs in the album were built.
This volume, together with the first facsimile edition published in 2005 and officially launched at the RIBA on 26 January 2006, is available for readers to consult in the RIBA Architecture study rooms|, Victoria and Albert Museum by appointment.
British Architectural Library receives national recognition (insert link)
The British Architectural Library has been recognised as having outstanding national and international importance under the Designation Scheme by The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA).
RIBA Drawings Collection acquires Hawksmoor model|
The British Architectural Library is delighted to announce that it has purchased the design model for Nicholas Hawksmoor’s Easton Neston, Northamptonshire, commissioned by William Fermor, 1st Baron Lempster (1648-1711). Find out more about the Easton Neston (insert link) model.
Architectural Press archive acquisition|
The Photographs Collection has taken over the photographic archive of the former Architectural Press following an agreement with The Architects’ Journal publisher, EMAP Construct. EMAP has donated the collection on the basis that it will be conserved to modern standards and made fully accessible.
View images from the Architectural Press archive
RIBA Drawings and Archives move to the V&A
As part of the V&A + RIBA Architecture Partnership, the Drawings and Archives Collections have moved to their new home at the Victoria and Albert Museum|.
The Drawings Collection and the Archives Collection are freely available to the public via the new study rooms at the V&A.
British Architectural Library
The RIBA's British Architectural Library is the largest and most comprehensive resource in the United Kingdom for research and information on all aspects of architecture. It is one of the finest collections of architectural material in the world.
The Library was established in 1834 as the library of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA Library). The collection comprises the Sir Banister Fletcher Library of books and periodicals and the Special Collections of drawings, photographs, manuscripts and archives.
A wide spectrum of subjects, ranging from prehistory to the present, is encompassed by the collections, which are international in scope. In addition to architectural theory, practice and history there is material on allied subjects such as building and construction, civil engineering, structural engineering, landscape architecture, interior design and decoration, the decorative arts, town and country planning, and construction law.
The Library is supported by the RIBA and does not receive direct funding from central government. Nevertheless, the collections and services are available to all.
Library highlights
V&A + RIBA Architecture Partnership|
The V&A + RIBA Architecture Partnership is the name given to the initiative of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Institute of British Architects to promote the understanding and enjoyment of architecture.
Together the V&A and the RIBA have opened the UK's first permanent architecture gallery and new study rooms at the V&A.
View a selection of portraits from the collections of the RIBA British Architectural Library online.
Early Printed Books 1478-1840: a Catalogue of the British Architectural Library Early Imprints Collection
Winner of the Besterman / McColvin Medal for an outstanding work of reference: printed category. Paul Nash, compiler and editor, won the Walford Award, for an individual who has made a sustained contribution to bibliography. The awards are organised and administered by CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and sponsored by Nielsen BookData.
Directory of British Architects 1834-1914
An updated and expanded edition of the definitive biographical reference tool for the Victorian and Edwardian periods.
Compiled by staff of the British Architectural Library, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA): Antonia Brodie, Alison Felstead, Jonathan Franklin, Leslie Pinfield and Jane Oldfield; Foreword by Mark Girouard
More than 11,000 British architects working between 1834 and 1914 are included in this directory. Its scope extends beyond members of the Royal Institute of British Architects to cover all those who practised architecture in Great Britain during the period, as well as many who practised in the former colonies and other parts of the world.
London: Continuum|, May 2001.
2 volumes (2,248 pages). ISBN 08264 49638 set of 2 vols. $660.00/£400.00
RIBA List of Recommended Books
Latest edition now available on this site
Design Connections|
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RIBA Drawings Collection authentic colours|
Crown Trade, the premium coatings brand of Akzo Nobel Trade Division, has launched an innovative range of paints inspired by drawings in the collection of the RIBA Library.