Inscriptions: New Bodleian Library
This inscription set low on the wall of the New Bodleian Library (soon to be renamed the Weston Library) on the corner of Parks Road and Broad Street reads:
AEDIFICII NOVI BODLEIANI
HUNC PRIMUM LAPIDEM
POSUIT MARIA REGINA
REGIS GEORGII VI MATER
DIE XXV MENS. IUN. A.D.MCMXXXVII
[Queen Mary, mother of King George VI,
laid this foundation stone of the new Bodleian building
on 25 June 1937]
When Queen Mary’s son George VI opened the library in 1940, the key unfortunately broke in the lock.
Jan (then James) Morris said of the building: “If you are in your fifties, nothing will reconcile you to the Bodleian extension at the end of Broad Street, which looks like a well-equipped municipal swimming bath, and replaced a nice corner of jostling old houses in the late 1930s.” Nonetheless, it is now a Grade II listed building.
