London

The John Ritblat Gallery houses some of the most famous written and printed items in the world: the Lindisfarne Gospels, Shakespeare's first Folio, Handel's 'Messiah', the Gutenberg Bible, drafts of the Magna Carta and the Beatles' manuscripts. The Workshop of Words, Sound and Images is a hands-on gallery that traces the story of book production from the earliest written documents through medieval manuscripts and printing to modern industrial processing and the digital revolution. Two CD jukeboxes in the entrance hall enable visitors to listen on headphones to a selection of items from the library's sound archive, including extracts from Nelson Mandela's 'Rivonia' trial speech in 1964, which led to his imprisonment for 27 years. The reading rooms (closed on Sundays and open only to card holders) have become so popular that the only complaint now is that they're too busy. The temporary exhibitions held at the British Library are often superb.