How Romance Blossomed among the Silent Readers ; ... AND INCIDENTALLY

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LADY Antonia Fraser complains that the British Library Reading Room has become overrun by undergraduates who are hogging all the desks. Her fellow historian Tristram Hunt bemoans the fact it is now a "groovy place" to meet for a frappuccino. Many feared that when the old Reading Room closed, the British Library would lose its charm. Far from it. It has become more fashionable than ever as a social venue.

In Charles Dickens's day you had to take a vow of silence to get a ticket to the Reading Room. It was a haven for intellectual endeavour Karl Marx pondered the tenets of world revolution here and Lenin used the pseudonym Jacob Richter LL D to gain entrance.

It's …