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From Magna Carta and Shakespeare to Florence Nightingale and Gandhi. Explore some of the world’s most exciting, beautiful and significant books, maps and manuscripts.

Telling the remarkable stories of over 2,000 years of human experience, our Treasures of the British Library Gallery introduces you to some of the most awe-inspiring items in our collection.

Plan your visit

All tickets must be pre-booked at the moment. Please remember to keep a safe distance from other visitors, and you must wear a face covering at all times.

We’re reopening for everyone and are continuing to follow government guidance to keep everyone safe. Find out more about how we’re welcoming you to the Library safely.

Where to start

Presented as a new one-way route showcasing the greatest works from our literary, scientific, music, art and sacred texts collections, discover the stories that have shaped the world – while keeping a safe distance from others.

The new route will lead you past works of genius such as the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, detailing his marvellous inventions, and the laboratory notes of Marilyn Monk and Cathy Holding, pioneers of genetic diagnosis. You’ll travel through Africa, Asia and Europe via the history of the book, and discover religious texts from across the world including The Ma’il Qur’an, the Library’s oldest Qur’an manuscript.

You can picture yourself at the desk of great writers as you look at handwritten manuscripts from the Brontë sisters, Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath, and Andrea Levy’s working drafts for Small Island and The Long Song. And you’ll have the chance to get close to the works of musical maestros from Mozart to McCartney.

If you’ve been here before, you might notice the gallery looks a little different. This is to give you enough room to enjoy the displays and keep everyone safe. We’ve also moved Magna Carta to provide a safe space for everyone to see this most significant of royal charters.

What else can I see?

• The desk where Jane Austen penned her novels, original writings from Charles Dickens and Shakespeare’s First Folio
• Our Art of the Book display dedicated to women artists including Karen Bleitz, Joumana Medlej, Christine Tacq and Angela Lorenz
• A letter from writer, composer and anti-slavery campaigner Charles Ignatius Sancho
• Sacred texts around the globe, including a Baha’i sacred text; a tablet written by the Bab in the form of a five-pointed star, and a Hindu manuscript written on a palm leaf
• Science and innovation through the ages from Michelangelo’s anatomical illustrations to Florence Nightingale’s original Diagram of the Causes of Mortality in the Army in the East
• A history of firsts, from the world’s earliest maps to one of the first ever photographs of the moon.

Can’t wait to visit? Get a taste of what’s inside the gallery.