I rediscovered this place recently having not been for years and now I keep returning. The geological galleries are my favourites.

It's a members-only library but you might be granted access with a research request. The writer's room is great but there's a few special, hidden corners among the bookshelves to tuck yourself away in.

To understand our 20th century

This is the stuff nightmares are made of. Good nightmares. A perverse Aladdin's cave of treasure and artefacts.

Escape the Eurocentric vortex here.