The British Museum, Great Russell Street

Originally called Montague House, and built as a large square about a courtyard, the Georgian British Museum was described as one of the noblest and most extensive buildings in London. The collections of the Museum are founded on the collection of Sir Hans Sloane who died in 1753. The Museum first opened to the public in Montague House in 1759. ('Open to the public' is mildly misleading - members of the public who wanted to see the collection had to apply in writing.) The original house was demolished in the 1840s as part of extensive nineteenth-century rebuilding programmes.

See another view of the museum looking from the opposite direction; also see a view of the courtyard c. 1809.