The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. The library is a major research library, holding around 170 million items from many countries, in many languages and in many formats, both print and digital: books, manuscripts, journals, newspapers, magazines, sound and music recordings, videos, play-scripts, patents, databases, maps, stamps, prints, drawings. The Library's collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial holdings of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 2000 BC. The British Library is the largest library in the world by number of items cataloged. As a legal deposit library, the British Library receives copies of all books produced in the United Kingdom and Ireland, including a significant proportion of overseas titles distributed in the UK. It also has a program for content acquisitions. The British Library adds some three million items every year occupying 6 miles of new shelf space. The library is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is located on the north side of Euston Road in St Pancras, London (between Euston railway station and St Pancras railway station) and has a document storage center and reading room near Boston Spa, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) east of Wetherby in West Yorkshire. Part of the library was originally a department of the British Museum and from the mid-19th century occupied the famous round reading room. It became legally separate in 1973, and by 1997 had moved into its new purpose-built building at St Pancras, London. For sightseers, only one room matters: the Treasures Room. It showcases early gospels on papyrus, the first complete New Testament — written in Greek from the fourth century, illuminated manuscripts with pages lovingly illustrated by monks — some of the finest art from Europe’s Middle Ages, and the Gutenberg Bible from 1455. Gutenberg’s revolutionary movable metal type made printing affordable. By bringing information to the masses, this innovation helped power Europe into the modern age. The Magna Carta, from 1215, documents the first steps toward government by people rather than kings…and the king was forced to hang his seal on it. Cases are dedicated to the titans of English literature, showing, for instance, early editions of Shakespeare’s plays. You’ll see precious musical manuscripts: a hand-written score of Handel’s Messiah, a Beethoven work tracing his stormy creative process, and hand-written Beatles lyrics. The British Library was created on 1 July 1973 as a result of the British Library Act 1972. Prior to this, the national library was part of the British Museum, which provided the bulk of the holdings of the new library, alongside smaller organisations which were folded in (such as the National Central Library, the National Lending Library for Science and Technology and the British National Bibliography). For many years its collections were dispersed in various buildings around central London, in places such as Bloomsbury (within the British Museum), Chancery Lane, Bayswater, and Holborn with an interlibrary lending centre at Boston Spa, Wetherby in West Yorkshire (situated on Thorp Arch Trading Estate) and the newspaper library at Colindale, north-west London. Initial plans for the British Library required demolition of an integral part of Bloomsbury – a seven acre swathe of streets immediately in front of the Museum, so that the Library could be situated directly opposite. After a long and hard-fought campaign led by Dr George Wagner, this decision was overturned and the library was instead constructed on a site at Euston Road next to St Pancras railway station. Tourist and Research Information
The British Library 96 Euston Road London,NW1 2DB Phone: +44 (0)20 7412 7332 Opening Times: The British Library building at St Pancras, Central London, is open to visitors seven days a week (apart from a few public holidays). Mon, Fri: 9:30am - 6:00pm Tue, Wed, Thu : 9:30am - 8:00pm Sat: 9:30am - 5:00pm Sun: 11:00am - 5:00pm Last admission is an hour before closing For more information about the library including research information, exhibitions, alternate opening times, food and drink services, etc. check out the official website below! Cheers!
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The Royal Mews is an important branch of the Lord Chamberlain's Office and provides road transport for The Queen and members of the Royal Family by both horse-drawn carriage and motor car. It is also one of the finest working stables still in existence, responsible for the training of the Windsor Greys and Cleveland Bays, the horses that pull the royal carriages. State vehicles are housed and maintained at the Royal Mews. They include the carriages used for royal and State occasions, such as State Visits, weddings and the State Opening of Parliament. Carriages from the Royal Mews are also used on roughly 50 occasions each year to convey newly appointed High Commissioners and Ambassadors from their official residence to Buckingham Palace to present their credentials to The Queen. Since 1843 the daily messenger Brougham has set out from the Royal Mews to collect and deliver post between Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace. The most dazzling of all coaches housed in the Royal Mews is the Gold State Coach, which has been used at every coronation since that of George IV in 1821. The latest coach to join the collection of royal coaches is The Diamond Jubilee State Coach (pictured above) which was built to commemorate The Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The Royal Mews is one of the finest working stables anywhere in the world and home to the royal collection of historic coaches and carriages, the stables are still to this day responsible for all road travel arrangements for Her Majesty The Queen. The Royal Mews in London offers regular guided tours where visitors can learn the history of the Mews and its association with the British monarchy. Tourist Information The Royal Mews
Buckingham Palace London, SW1W 1QH You can visit the Royal Mews at your leisure using the complimentary audio tour, which lasts approximately 45 minutes. Between April - October guided tours also depart at regular intervals throughout the day. Admission Times 1 April – 31 October Open daily 10:00-5:00 (last admission 4:15) 1-30 November Monday to Saturday 10:00-4:00 (last admission 3:15) 2 February - 31 March 2015 Monday to Saturday 10:00-4:00 (last admission 3:15) Admission Prices (Includes Audio Guide) Adult £8.75 Over 60/Student (with valid ID) £8.00 Under 17/Disabled £5.40 Under 5 Free Family (2 adults, 3 under 17) £22.90 I would highly suggest you get a combo ticket. This gives you combined admission to the Royal Mews and the adjacent Queen's Gallery. The Prices are below: Combined visit: The Royal Mews and The Queen's Gallery Adult £16.75 Over 60/Student (with valid ID) £15.25 Under 17/Disabled £9.30 Under 5 Free Family (2 adults, 3 under 17s) £42.80 For more information including current closures and opening times and all other information, check out the official website through the Royal Collection Trust, below. Cheers! Built by Messrs Harland & Wolff of Belfast in 1936, Anne Chamberlain, wife of the then Prime Minister launched Belfast on St Patrick’s Day 1938. After fitting out and builder’s trials HMS Belfast was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 5 August 1939 under the command of Captain G A Scott DSO RN. Designed for the protection of trade and offensive action she was immediately called into service patrolling the northern waters in efforts to impose a maritime blockade on Germany. However, disaster struck after only two months at sea when HMS Belfast hit a magnetic mine. There were few casualties but the damage to her hull was so severe she was out of action for three years. On rejoining the home fleet in 1942 she was still the largest and most powerful cruiser in the Royal Navy and most importantly she was equipped with the most advanced radar systems. HMS Belfast was immediately called into action and played a crucial role in protecting the arctic convoys, Russia’s supply route throughout the war. Most notably in her role during the Battle of North Cape which saw the sinking of the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst and the loss of all but 36 of her 1,963 crew. HMS Belfast remained protecting the arctic convoys until 1944 when she spent five weeks supporting the D-Day landings and reportedly fired one of the first shots on D-Day itself. After the Second World War HMS Belfast played an active role in the Korean War from 1950-1952 working with other Allied Forces to support the retreating American and South Korean troops. Her final years were spent performing peace-keeping duties until she was retired from service in 1963. As early as 1967 the Imperial War Museum had been investigating the possibility of preserving a Second World War cruiser. This led to the formation of a trust, headed up by one of HMS Belfast’s former captains Rear-Admiral Sir Morgan Morgan-Giles. After some years the trust was successful and HMS Belfast was brought to London opening to the public on Trafalgar Day, 21 October 1971. Today she is the last remaining vessel of her type – one of the largest and most powerful light cruisers ever built. She is permanently docked on the south bank of the Thames in between Tower Bridge and London Bridge. Tourist Information HMS Belfast The Queen's Walk London, SE1 2JH Phone: 020 7940 6300 Opening Hours 3 November to 28 February 10am – 5pm (last admission 4pm) 1 March to 31 October 10am – 6pm (last admission 5pm) They are closed 24, 25, and 26 December. During adverse weather, it may become necessary for certain ladders and upper decks on HMS Belfast to be closed at short notice. Please ask a member of staff on board for more information. Occasionally they may need to close early – any planned closures will be noted on the official website. Tickets Adults £15.50 Child (under 16) Free Concessions (Senior, Student, Disabled) £12.40 IWM Members Free Admission prices excluding voluntary donation: Adult £14.05, Concessions £11.25 *HMS Belfast is part of Imperial War Museums, which is a registered charity. Your ticket price includes a 10% voluntary donation. By making a donation, you will be making a valuable contribution to the care and conservation of this historic site. And, if you are a UK tax payer, your donation will enable us to claim Gift Aid on your entire admission payment. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult! For more information including current opening times, closures, exhibits and what to see, check out the official website below. Cheers!
The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was the first portrait gallery in the world when it opened in 1856. The gallery moved in 1896 to its current site at St Martin's Place, off Trafalgar Square, and adjoining the National Gallery. It has been expanded twice since then. The National Portrait Gallery also has three regional outposts at Beningbrough Hall, Bodelwyddan Castle and Montacute House. It is unconnected to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, with which its remit overlaps. The gallery is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The gallery houses portraits of historically important and famous British people, selected on the basis of the significance of the sitter, not that of the artist. The collection includes photographs and caricatures as well as paintings, drawings and sculpture. One of its best-known images is the Chandos portrait, the most famous portrait of William Shakespeare (pictured left) although there is some uncertainty about whether the painting actually is of the playwright. Not all of the portraits are exceptional artistically, although there are self-portraits by William Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds and other British artists of note. Some, such as the group portrait of the participants in the Somerset House Conference of 1604, are important historical documents in their own right. Often, the curiosity value is greater than the artistic worth of a work, as in the case of the anamorphic portrait of Edward VI by William Scrots, Patrick Branwell Brontë's painting of his sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne, or a sculpture of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in medieval costume. Portraits of living figures were allowed from 1969. In addition to its permanent galleries of historical portraits, the National Portrait Gallery exhibits a rapidly changing selection of contemporary work, stages exhibitions of portrait art by individual artists and hosts the annual BP Portrait Prize competition. The National Portrait Gallery was formally established on 2 December 1856, and amongst its founder Trustees were Stanhope as Chairman, Macaulay, Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Ellesmere, a former Trustee of the National Gallery, who offered to the nation the so-called Chandos portrait of Shakespeare, which became the first picture to enter the Gallery's collection. On Ellesmere's death in 1857 Carlyle became a Trustee. The National Portrait Gallery was established with the criteria that the Gallery was to be about history, not about art, and about the status of the sitter, rather than the quality or character of a particular image considered as a work of art. This criterion is still used by the Gallery today when deciding which works enter the National Portrait Gallery's collection. Originally, it was decided by the Trustees that "No portrait of any person still living, or deceased less that 10 years, shall be admitted by purchase, donation, or bequest, except only in the case of the reigning Sovereign, and of his or her Consort". This rule changed in 1969 in order to encourage a policy of admitting living sitters. For the first 40 years, the gallery was housed in various locations in London. The first 13 years were spent at 29 Great George Street, Westminster. There, the collection increased in size from 57 to 208 items, and the number of visitors from 5,300 to 34,500. In 1869, the collection moved to Exhibition Road and buildings managed by the Royal Horticultural Society. Following a fire in those buildings, the collection was moved in 1885, this time to the Bethnal Green Museum. This location was ultimately unsuitable due to its distance from the West End, condensation and lack of waterproofing. Following calls for a new location to be found, the government accepted an offer of funds from the philanthropist William Henry Alexander. Alexander donated £60,000 followed by another £20,000, and also chose the architect, Ewan Christian. The government provided the new site, St Martin's Place, adjacent to the National Gallery, and £16,000. The buildings, faced in Portland stone, were constructed by Shillitoe & Son. Both the architect, Ewan Christian, and the gallery's first director, George Scharf, died shortly before the new building was completed. The gallery opened at its new location on 4 April 1896. The site has since been expanded twice. The first extension, in 1933, was funded by Lord Duveen, and resulted in the wing by architect Sir Richard Allison that runs along Orange Street. The collections of the National Portrait Gallery were stored at Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire during the Second World War, along with pieces from the Royal Collection and paintings from Speaker's House in the Palace of Westminster. The second extension was funded by Sir Christopher Ondaatje and a £12m Heritage Lottery Fund grant, and was designed by London based architects Edward Jones and Jeremy Dixon. The Ondaatje Wing opened in 2000 and occupies a narrow space of land between the two 19th-century buildings of the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, and is notable for its immense, two-story escalator that takes visitors to the earliest part of the collection, the Tudor portraits. The Duchess of Cambridge became Patron of the National Portrait Gallery in January 2012. The Duchess’s Patronage reflects her personal interests in the arts and will help the Gallery to continue to reach wider audiences and to encourage more young people to engage with the Collection. On Wednesday 8 February 2012 the Duchess made her first public visit to the Gallery to view the Lucian Freud Portraits exhibition. Tourist Information National Portrait Gallery
St Martin’s Place London, WC2H 0HE Phone: 020 7306 0055 The National Portrait Gallery is adjacent to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square to the right. Entry to the building is free of charge, although there are ticket prices for special exhibitions that go on throughout the year. Disabled visitors are entitled to visit the Gallery at the Concessionary rates and their carers are admitted free of charge. Opening Hours Saturday-Wednesday: 10:00am- 6:00pm Thursday-Friday: 10:00am- 9:00pm Closing commences at 5:50pm and 8:50pm. Mondays - Floors 1 and 2 open at 11:00. Ticket Desk closes/last admission to paying exhibitions 45 minutes or 1 hour before Gallery closes (see exhibition pages for details). For more information of the gallery including current exhibitions, offers, opening times, etc. click on the link below to the official website! The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in London. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The Gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Its collection belongs to the public of the United Kingdom and entry to the main collection is free of charge. It is the fourth most visited art museum in the world, after the Musée du Louvre, the British Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Unlike comparable museums in continental Europe, the National Gallery was not formed by nationalising an existing royal or princely art collection. It came into being when the British government bought 38 paintings from the heirs of John Julius Angerstein, an insurance broker and patron of the arts, in 1824. After that initial purchase the Gallery was shaped mainly by its early directors, notably Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, and by private donations, which comprise two-thirds of the collection. The resulting collection is small in size, compared with many European national galleries, but encyclopaedic in scope; most major developments in Western painting "from Giotto to Cézanne" are represented with important works. It used to be claimed that this was one of the few national galleries that had all its works on permanent exhibition, but this is no longer the case. The present building, the third to house the National Gallery, was designed by William Wilkins from 1832–38. Only the façade onto Trafalgar Square remains essentially unchanged from this time, as the building has been expanded piecemeal throughout its history. Wilkins's building was often criticised for its perceived aesthetic deficiencies and lack of space; the latter problem led to the establishment of the Tate Gallery for British art in 1897. The Sainsbury Wing, an extension to the west by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, is a notable example of Postmodernist architecture in Britain. The current Director of the National Gallery is Nicholas Penny. All major traditions of Western European painting are represented from the artists of late medieval and Renaissance Italy to the French Impressionists.
Museum Information
The National Gallery Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN Phone: +44 (0)20 7747 2885 Museum Hours Daily 10am – 6pm Friday 10am – 9pm ADMISSION IS FREE! For more information about the current collections, special events and exhibitions, additional tourist information, etc. check out the official website below! The Natural History Museum in London is a museum exhibiting a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History Museum's main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road. The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology and zoology. The museum is a world-renowned centre of research specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Charles Darwin. The museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons and ornate architecture—sometimes dubbed a cathedral of nature—both exemplified by the large Diplodocus cast which dominates the vaulted central hall. The Natural History Museum Library contains extensive books, journals, manuscripts, and artwork collections linked to the work and research of the scientific departments; access to the library is by appointment only. Although commonly referred to as the Natural History Museum, it was actually officially known as British Museum (Natural History) until 1992, despite legal separation from the British Museum itself in 1963. Originating from collections within the British Museum, the landmark Alfred Waterhouse building was built and opened by 1881, and later incorporated the Geological Museum. The Darwin Centre is a more recent addition, partly designed as a modern facility for storing the valuable collections. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the Natural History Museum does not charge an admission fee. The museum is an exempt charity and a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge is a patron of the museum. The Museum is organized into four different zones spread out over four floors. Each zone can range a few different floors. The exhibits in each zone are listed below. Red Zone Earth Lab Earth's Treasures Lasting Impressions Restless Surface Earth Today and Tomorrow From the Beginning The Power Within Visions of Earth Green zone Birds Creepy Crawlies Ecology Fossil Marine Reptiles Giant Sequoia and Central Hall Minerals The Vault Our Place in Evolution Plant Power Primates Investigate Blue zone Dinosaurs Fish, Amphibians and Reptiles Human Biology Jerwood Marine Invertebrates Mammals Mammals (Blue whale) Nature Live Orange zone Wildlife Garden Darwin Centre Tourist Information
The Natural History Museum Cromwell Road London SW7 5BD Phone: +44 (0)20 7942 5000 Museum Hours 7 Days a Week- 10:00am- 5:50pm ADMISSION IS FREE! There is a separate charge for special exhibitions! For more information on the museum including: current events and exhibitions, floor plans, research information, etc. check out the official website below! Cheers! As a major Harry Potter fanatic, this is one of the stops on my seven day trip to London. As many fans will know, King's Cross Station is the home to the Hogwarts Express, caught at Platform 9 3/4. To celebrate this wonderful phenomenon, King's Cross station opened this store adjacent to Platform 9 3/4. On December 15, 2013, the store was opened by actor Warwick Davis, who portrayed both the choir directing Charms Teacher, Professor Filius Flitwick, and the Gringotts goblin, Griphook in the film series. The shop carries a wide variety of Harry Potter and Platform 9 3/4 collectibles. The apparel section contains t-shirts, sweaters, ties, scarves, and costumes. The Souvenirs collection includes mugs, keychains, stationery, toys, phone cases, etc. The Collectibles include wands, prop replicas, jewelry,and other treasures. They also carry the books and DVDs, as well as the different sweets as seen in the movies and books. After you have finished shopping you can walk just outside of the shop to have a picture with the trolley disappearing into the wall at Platform 9 3/4, as seen below with Prince Charles and Camilla! Store Information
The Harry Potter Shop at Platform 9 3/4 Kings Cross Station London • N1 9AP Phone: 0207 803 0500 Store Hours Monday-Saturday 8am - 10pm Sunday 9am - 9pm For more information about products, delivery charges, and even online ordering, check out the official website below! Cheers! The Victoria and Albert Museum's collections span two thousand years of art in virtually every medium, from many parts of the world, and visitors to the museum encounter a treasure house of amazing and beautiful objects. The Museum was established in 1852, following the enormous success of the Great Exhibition the previous year. Its founding principle was to make works of art available to all, to educate working people and to inspire British designers and manufacturers. Profits from the Exhibition were used to establish the Museum of Manufactures, as it was initially known, and exhibits were purchased to form the basis of its collections. The Museum moved to its present site in 1857 and was renamed the South Kensington Museum. Its collections expanded rapidly as it set out to acquire the best examples of metalwork, furniture, textiles and all other forms of decorative art from all periods. It also acquired fine art - paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture - in order to tell a more complete history of art and design. In 1899, Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone of a new building designed to give the Museum a grand façade and main entrance. To mark the occasion, it was renamed the Victoria and Albert Museum, in memory of the enthusiastic support Prince Albert had given to its foundation. Throughout the 20th century, the collections continued to grow. While expanding its historical collections, the V&A also maintained its acquisition of contemporary objects, starting with a collection of Art Nouveau furniture in 1900. The Museum's ceramics, glass, textiles, dress, silver, ironwork, jewelry, furniture, sculpture, paintings, prints and photographs now span the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa, and date from ancient times to the present day. Tourist Information
V&A Museum South Kensington Cromwell Road London SW7 2RL Phone: +44 (0)20 7942 2000 Opening Times 10:00am to 5:45pm daily 10:00am to 10:00pm Fridays (selected galleries remain open after 6:00 - please see Gallery Closures for further information) Closing commences 10 minutes before time stated Closed 24, 25 and 26 December The tunnel entrance to the V&A is open from 10:00am - 5:40pm Saturday to Thursday and 10:00am - 8:00pm on Fridays but may be closed on occasion on the advice of London Underground. Admission to the V&A is free! Some exhibitions and events carry a separate charge. For more information including current exhibitions, events, maps, and all other information, check out the official website below! Cheers! This is one of the more recent museums in London. Rick Steves really promotes this site in his tours and talks for one reason...it is really interesting. It tells the stories of the dark days of the Blitz of WWII and tells the story of Britain's greatest war leader, Sir Winston Churchill! The Cabinet War Rooms provided the secret underground headquarters for the core of the British government throughout the Second World War. The fear that London would be the target of aerial bombardment had troubled the government since the First World War and in 1938 the basement of a Whitehall building was chosen as the site for the Cabinet War Rooms. From 1940 – 1945 hundreds of men and women would spend thousands of vital hours here and it soon became the inner sanctum of British government. Following the surrender of the Japanese Forces the doors to the Cabinet War Rooms were locked on 16 August 1945 and the complex was left undisturbed until Parliament ensured its preservation as a historic site in 1948. Knowledge of the site and access to it remained highly restricted until the late 1970s when the Imperial War Museum began the task of preserving the site and its contents, making them accessible to as wide an audience as possible. In 1984 the main war rooms opened to the public. In 2003 further restoration work opened the ‘Courtyard Rooms’, the rooms where staff would eat, sleep and work in safety. As part of a renovation in 2005, they added the only museum in the world dedicated to Winston Churchill. It gives an in depth look at the life of Mr. Churchill. Tourist Information
Churchill War Rooms Clive Steps King Charles Street London SW1A 2AQ Phone: 020 7930 6961 Opening Times Open daily 9:30am - 6pm Last admission 5pm Closed 24, 25 and 26 December *Please check the official website or call the museum for unexpected closures or events. Tickets Adults £17.50 Child (under 16) Free Concessions (Senior, Student, Disabled) £14.00 *Churchill War Rooms is part of Imperial War Museums, which is a registered charity. Your ticket price includes a voluntary donation. By making a donation, you will be making a valuable contribution to the care and conservation of this historic site. You can purchase tickets on-site or it is preferred to buy them online! Anyone who is an admirer of William Shakespeare and/or his work, must make this a destination when you are in London. The Globe stands a few hundred yards from its original site. The rebuilding of the iconic building stems from the founding of the Shakespeare's Globe Trust by the pioneering American actor and director Sam Wanamaker. The project to rebuild Shakespeare’s Globe was initiated by the American actor, director and producer Sam Wanamaker after his first visit to London in 1949. Twenty-one years later he founded what was to become the Shakespeare Globe Trust, dedicated to the reconstruction of the theater and the creation of an education center and permanent exhibition. After 23 years spent tirelessly fundraising, advancing research into the appearance of the original Globe and planning the reconstruction with the Trust’s architect Theo Crosby, Sam Wanamaker died in 1993, the site having been secured, the exhibition under-croft structurally complete and a few timber bays of the theater in place. Three and a half years later the theater was completed. What did the first Globe look like? Nobody knows for sure. All the same, the Globe itself was not a truly circular building. The archaeological excavation of the Rose Theatre in 1989 revealed what most scholars had long suspected, that the Elizabethan playhouses were polygonal buildings. In the same year, a small portion of the Globe itself was excavated, from which two important inferences were drawn: that it was a 20-sided building with a diameter of 100 feet. Techniques used in the reconstruction of the theater were painstakingly accurate. ‘Green’ oak was cut and fashioned according to 16th-century practice and assembled in two-dimensional bays on the Bankside site; oak laths and staves support lime plaster mixed according to a contemporary recipe and the walls are covered in a white lime wash. The roof is made of water reed thatch, based on samples found during the excavation. The stage is the most conjectural aspect of the reconstruction. Almost nothing survives from the period to suggest the appearance of this part of the theater. Its design was drawn from evidence provided by existing buildings of the period and practical advice offered by the actors and directors who participated in the 1995 ‘Workshop’ and 1996 ‘Prologue’ seasons. Other than concessions to comply with modern day fire regulations such as additional exits, illuminated signage, fire retardant materials and some modern backstage machinery, the Globe is as accurate a reconstruction of the 1599 Globe as was possible with the available evidence. The reconstruction is as faithful to the original as modern scholarship and traditional craftsmanship can make it, but for the time being this Globe is – and is likely to remain – neither more nor less than the ‘best guess’ at Shakespeare’s theater. Today, the Globe Theater has two functions. It is an actual producing theatre with a schedule of productions on its official website. It also house an exhibition that deals with William Shakespeare as well as the history of the actual Globe Theater. Tourist Information Opening Times (Exhibition and Tours) Exhibition Daily: 9:00am – 5:30pm Globe Theater Tours Monday: 9:30am – 5:00pm Tuesday – Saturday: 9:30am – 12:00pm Sunday: 9:30am – 11:30am Tours depart every 30 minutes. These times apply until 11 October 2014. All opening times are subject to change. PLEASE NOTE: As they are a working theater, the Exhibition and /or tours may occasionally not be available; or an alternative may be offered, due to events, rehearsals, and performances. Exhibition and Tour Tickets Adult: £13.50 Senior (60+): £12.00 Student (with valid ID): £11.00 Children (5-15): £8.00 Children (under 5): Free Family (up to 2 adults & 3 children): £36.00 You can also purchase tickets on their online site as E-Vouchers. For more info, check out the official site at the bottom. Theater Box Office To see the current showtimes, ticket prices, and seating preferences, check out the box office page below. For all of the current info such as current opening times, events, tickets, etc, check out the Globe Theater official website below! Cheers!
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