Military guard discontinued.
Then follow various details of minor consequence; to which succeed an enumeration of the additional space gained for the Collections of Printed Books, Manuscripts, Prints and Drawings, Antiquities, Coins and Medals, as well as for offices, store-rooms, bookbinders’ shops, &c., by the proposed alterations, as respects each of the several Departments of Printed Books, Manuscripts, and Antiquities; and a summary of the whole, from which it appears that the additional space gained by the Department of Printed Books amounts to an area of seventeen thousand eight hundred and three square feet; that the additional space gained by the Department of Antiquities amounts to sixty-seven thousand six hundred and ninety-two square feet; and, finally, that the additional space gained by the Department of Manuscripts amounts to three thousand four hundred and thirty square feet.
| Recapitulation. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present Space. | Proposed Addition. | Proposed Deduction. | Proposed Total. | ||
| Printed Books. | |||||
| Basement | 33,998 | 14,667 | 48,665 | ||
| Ground floor | 83,748 | 2,070 | 81,678 | ||
| Upper floor | 5,206 | 5,206 | |||
| 117,746 | 19,873 | 2,070 | 135,549 | ||
| Manuscripts. | |||||
| Basement | 210 | 1,360 | 1,570 | ||
| Ground floor | 12,968 | 2,070 | 15,038 | ||
| 13,178 | 3,430 | 16,608 | |||
| Antiquities. | |||||
| Basement | 33,868 | 16,036 | 6,767 | 43,137 | |
| Ground floor | 39,334 | 13,775 | 53,109 | ||
| Upper floor | 21,532 | ||||
| Less Coins and Medals | 2,950 | ||||
| 18,582 | 44,648 | 63,230 | |||
| 91,784 | 74,459 | 6,767 | 159,476 | ||
| Coins and Medals. | |||||
| Upper floor | 2,950 | ||||
| New building | 4,950 | ||||
| 2,950 | 4,950 | 7,900 | |||
| Prints and Drawings. | |||||
| Upper floor | 2,600 | 3,204 | 2,600 | ||
| New building | 4,950 | ||||
| 2,600 | 8,154 | 2,600 | 8,154 | ||
| Committee Room, Offices, Stores, &c. | |||||
| Basement | 1,290 | 1,290 | |||
| Ground floor | 3,565 | 3,565 | |||
| Upper floor | 1,869 | 1,869 | |||
| New Building (Basement) | 5,400 | ||||
| New Building (Ground) | 4,950 | ||||
| 6,724 | 10,350 | 6,724 | 10,350 | ||
| Binders. | |||||
| Basement | 1,360 | 1,360 | |||
| Detached building | 3,179 | 3,179 | |||
| New building | 7,760 | ||||
| 4,539 | 7,760 | 4,539 | 7,760 | ||
Your Committee, proceeds the Report, do not think it necessary to give the particulars of the accommodation which the unappropriated portions of the basement floor would afford for the preservation of moulds, as well as for the formatore, for making and preserving casts of statues and other large objects, as well as of gems and seals, and also for providing such decent and suitable conveniences as the health and comfort of the thousands who visit the Museum absolutely require.
Future use of basement.
It is, perhaps, unnecessary to do more than simply to remind the Trustees that the want of space at the Museum has been felt and has been urged on the Government for several years past, and that during the last four or five years the additions to the Collections of Antiquities have been so rapid and so numerous, as to render it impossible to do more than provide for them temporary shelter at a considerable expense, and to the great disfigurement of the noble façade which entitles the Museum to claim rank among the most classical buildings of modern times. |Urgency of building at once.| Should the above proposals of your Committee meet with the approbation of the Trustees and the sanction of the Government, they ought to be carried into effect without delay. The Government would, doubtless, lose no time in providing a proper building for the reception of such collections as are to be removed from the Museum; until this removal has taken place, no redistribution of the vacated space can be undertaken; but the new structures proposed to be erected on ground now unoccupied ought to be proceeded with at once, that they might be rendered available as speedily as possible.
What to be first put in hand.
Your Committee are of opinion that the new building facing Montague Street, the building for the bookbinder, the building intended to be erected on the ground now vacant between the Elgin Room and the Print Room, and the construction of the new principal staircases, should be commenced immediately. The building intended to be erected on the vacant ground on the west of the Trustees’ Room (No. 11 on the plan), must, necessarily, be postponed for awhile. The alterations which might and ought to be rapidly completed, are those which will be required on the east side of the King’s Library (No. 55 and 57), to transfer the gallery to the Department of MSS. from that of Printed Books.
Committee of Trustees to be appointed.
The Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury state that ‘they will be prepared to enter upon the details of these questions in communication with the Trustees, and even, if it should be desired, to offer suggestions upon them.’ Your Committee are of opinion that the proffered assistance should be at once accepted; and that in order to derive all possible advantage from that assistance a small Committee of Trustees should be appointed to carry on the necessary communications with the Treasury, either verbally or otherwise, and to consider with their Lordships all suggestions that might be offered respecting the points touched upon in this Report, and their details. This Committee would be similar to that which the Trustees requested the Treasury to appoint, by letter of the twentieth of June, 1829, and which was afterwards appointed by the Trustees themselves, with the approbation of their Lordships, to direct and superintend, not only the works then in progress, but those to be afterwards undertaken.