The Library

You win some, you lose some. Today we thought we'd give Camden Markets a go. Now, you need to know, Chris and I are typically not market kind of guys. In all honesty, we often find them a bit tacky. That's not to judge anyone who loves markets. After all, one man's tack is another man's treasure. And God knows, we've bought a thing or two at Hot Bargain, our own local dollar shop. So, while we don't frequent markets, we understand that many people get a real buzz out of them.

Sadly, the famous Camden Markets brought no buzz to us, not even a flicker of a buzz. Embarrassedly, not even a scintilla of a buzz. In fact, that mixed metaphor brought more of a buzz than did Camden Markets.

The streets and shops go on for a fair way. There are a lot of stalls. And they all seem to be selling nostalgia. You can buy Steely Dan T shirts, Electric Light Orchestra totes, mugs with 70s and 80s pop culture and hard rock culture imprinted, all mannner of goth, pop, rock clothing, vinyl records, as well as the odd Buddhist stall selling Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, or New Age stalls selling incense, runes and dream catchers.

In truth, while everyone was friendly and chilled and mostly browsing, some of the stalls looked a bit grubby, although some had gone to great expense with lighting. The Google entry for Cameden Market states that it "offers a unique experience that combines an eclectic mix of over 1000 unusual and unique shops, bars and cafes". This is true but only to a point. There is a nice lock there on Regent's Canal, and as Australians, not used to locks, I found this more interesting than the stalls.

Chris and I walked through, didn't buy anything, finally admited each to the other that "I'm not really into this" and left.

So, where would two of the finest calibre nerds you could ever meet go after eschewing the delights and pleasures of Camden Markets? Why, to the British Library of course.

This was one of those spur of the moment ideas. We spend a lot of time in bookstores like Waterstones, so we thought that London would no doubt have an awesome library. We were right.

It is extraordinary. Located on Euston Road at St Pancras in the heart of London, the Bristish Library is the national library of the UK and has "over 170 million items includ[ing] artefacts from every age of written civilisation'. It is a big building. You would need a tour to see everything. But, you could also just walk in and take a look around. Including into the rooms where they house 'the treasures of the Bristish Library'. We made a beeline for the treasure house.

And what wonderful treasures. Highlights for me. A FIrst Folio of Shakespeare, which was the first collation of his plays with some 36 of the 38 plays, printed in 1623 just seven years after his death. The First Folio also has that famous portrait of Shakespeare at the front of the folio, probably a very good indication of what he looked like.

There is a copy of Handel's hand-written score for his opera, Atlanta, 1736. There is a hand-written copy of Mozart's score for his String Quartet in D Major, 1789. There is one of Beethoven's tuning forks that scholars believe he gave British violinist George Bridgetower in 1803. There is a hand-written score of Schubert's 'An Die Musik' (To Music), one of his hundreds of songs. There is a hand-written early draft of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.

The Sherbourne Missal (1399-1407) is a richly decorated giant of a book weighing 20kg and containing 694 ornately decorated pages. It is a huge thing, and even looking at just the open page under glass, one cannot think that something like cold legitimately be priced or sold. It is priceless. The intricacy and colour of the work, the caligraphy and beauty, the sheer size of its hundreds of pages are staggering to consider.

And finally, we come full circle, back to St Cuthbert, whose tomb we saw in Durham Cathedral. The British Library has the St Cuthbert's Gospel, a hand-written Gospel of John, dated from the early eighth century, and the Bible that was buried with him for four hundred years, still intact and in excellent condition. It is the oldest known book in its original condition in all of Europe.

As a post-script, The British Library also houses the King's Library, a respository that contains the library of King George III, the King when Australia was colonised by the British. It contains books mainly printed in Britain, Europe and North America from the mid-fifteenth to the early nineteenth centuries. It consists of 65,000 volumes and 19,000 pamphlets and is housed in a special container that passes through several floors of the main building. It is quite spectacular to see.

If I were a Londoner, I would make good use of this extaordinary library. It is magisterial in its scope and is beautiful to look at. What a great place to study, write or work.Read more