Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II is Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms. Elizabeth was born in London as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, she was educated at home, her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother King Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In 1947, she married Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, with whom she has four children: Charles, Prince of Wales; when her father died in February 1952, she became head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Ceylon. She has reigned as a constitutional monarch through major political changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation, the decolonisation of Africa. Between 1956 and 1992, the number of her realms varied as territories gained independence and realms, including South Africa and Ceylon, became republics.
Her many historic visits and meetings include a state visit to the Republic of Ireland and visits to or from five popes. Significant events have included her coronation in 1953 and the celebrations of her Silver and Diamond Jubilees in 1977, 2002, 2012 respectively. In 2017, she became the first British monarch to reach a Sapphire Jubilee, she is the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch as well as the world's longest-reigning queen regnant and female head of state, the oldest and longest-reigning current monarch and the longest-serving current head of state. Elizabeth has faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the royal family, in particular after the breakdown of her children's marriages, her annus horribilis in 1992 and the death in 1997 of her former daughter-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales. However, support for the monarchy has been and remains high, as does her personal popularity. Elizabeth was born at 02:40 on 21 April 1926, during the reign of her paternal grandfather, King George V.
Her father, the Duke of York, was the second son of the King. Her mother, the Duchess of York, was the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, she was delivered by Caesarean section at her maternal grandfather's London house: 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair. She was baptised by the Anglican Archbishop of York, Cosmo Gordon Lang, in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace on 29 May, named Elizabeth after her mother, Alexandra after George V's mother, who had died six months earlier, Mary after her paternal grandmother. Called "Lilibet" by her close family, based on what she called herself at first, she was cherished by her grandfather George V, during his serious illness in 1929 her regular visits were credited in the popular press and by biographers with raising his spirits and aiding his recovery. Elizabeth's only sibling, Princess Margaret, was born in 1930; the two princesses were educated at home under the supervision of their mother and their governess, Marion Crawford.
Lessons concentrated on history, language and music. Crawford published a biography of Elizabeth and Margaret's childhood years entitled The Little Princesses in 1950, much to the dismay of the royal family; the book describes Elizabeth's love of horses and dogs, her orderliness, her attitude of responsibility. Others echoed such observations: Winston Churchill described Elizabeth when she was two as "a character, she has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant." Her cousin Margaret Rhodes described her as "a jolly little girl, but fundamentally sensible and well-behaved". During her grandfather's reign, Elizabeth was third in the line of succession to the throne, behind her uncle Edward and her father. Although her birth generated public interest, she was not expected to become queen, as Edward was still young. Many people believed he would have children of his own; when her grandfather died in 1936 and her uncle succeeded as Edward VIII, she became second-in-line to the throne, after her father.
That year, Edward abdicated, after his proposed marriage to divorced socialite Wallis Simpson provoked a constitutional crisis. Elizabeth's father became king, she became heir presumptive. If her parents had had a son, she would have lost her position as first-in-line, as her brother would have been heir apparent and above her in the line of succession. Elizabeth received private tuition in constitutional history from Henry Marten, Vice-Provost of Eton College, learned French from a succession of native-speaking governesses. A Girl Guides company, the 1st Buckingham Palace Company, was formed so she could socialise with girls her own age, she was enrolled as a Sea Ranger. In 1939, Elizabeth's parents toured the United States; as in 1927, when her parents had toured Australia and New Zealand, Elizabeth remained in Britain, since her father thought her too young to undertake public tours. Elizabeth "looked tearful", they corresponded and she and her parents made the first royal transatlantic telephone call on 18 May.
In September 1939, Britain entered the Second World War. Lord Hailsham suggested that the two princesses should be evacuated to Canada to avoid the frequent aerial bombing; this was rejected by Elizabeth's mother. I won't leave wit
Nigel Havers
Nigel Allan Havers is an English actor. He played Lord Andrew Lindsay in the 1981 British film Chariots of Fire, earning a BAFTA nomination for the role and Tom Latimer in the British TV comedy series Don't Wait Up, he portrayed the role of Lewis Archer in Coronation Street from 2009 to 2010. He returned to the role in 2012 and left again in February 2013, he returned again on 1 June 2018 and remained in Coronation Street until the character's death in January 2019. Havers was born in Edmonton, North London, is the second son of Sir Michael Havers, a barrister who became a controversial Attorney General for England and Wales and Lord Chancellor in the Conservative Government in the 1980s, his paternal aunt, Baroness Butler-Sloss, his grandfather Sir Cecil Havers and elder brother Philip Havers QC had prominent legal careers. His paternal uncle, David Havers was a Manchester-based businessman. Havers took part in the BBC TV series Who Do You Think You Are?, broadcast in the UK in July 2013. As part of the show he explored his ancestry from an Essex businessman, on his father's side, a Cornish miller on his mother's side.
Havers was educated at Nowton Court Prep School and the Arts Educational School, an independent school in London, opting against the Eton education traditional to his family, because he thought that fagging "sounded frightful". Havers is most known for "playing the quintessential, old school Englishman with his dashing good looks, cut-glass accent and charming manner". Havers's first acting job was in the radio series Mrs Dale's Diary and he subsequently went on to working for the Prospect Theatre Company "carrying a spear and making cups of tea" as he puts it in his autobiography. After this he had a stint working for a Jamie Symonds. Mr Symonds, interviewed on Richard and Judy, stated "Nige used to babysit for us back as well as iron and fix things. I loved him as I still do. I miss his fluffy hair and his strong hands". From an early age Havers had an eye for the ladies, he describes his experiences with an early leading lady, Maxine Audley thus: "I was in her dressing room doing whatever she asked me to, I mean anything and everything.
One afternoon I sauntered into her dressing room, still in my officer's kit, only to find a clad new member of the cast rehearsing what I had perfected over the past few months. My time was up, she blew I slid away. I was rather relieved, I needed a rest." After his theatre work, Havers slid into a period of acting unemployment, during which time he worked for a wine merchant. He ended this part of his career when his girlfriend, who became his first wife, Carolyn Cox, suggested they move in together in 1974. In 1975 Havers's career began to pick up with an appearance in Upstairs, appearing in one of the series' last episodes, "Joke Over" as Peter Dinmont, one of Georgina's Roaring Twenties "party" friends. Dinmont is in the Rolls Royce. Dinmont refuses to testify on Georgina's behalf at a preliminary trial, as he was passed out drunk in the back seat and did not witness the accident, his first film appearance was a small part in Pope Joan and he was a character in The Glittering Prizes, but his first major success came with the leading role in a BBC dramatisation of Nicholas Nickleby followed by another BBC drama serial, A Horseman Riding By.
By the time he appeared in the film Chariots of Fire, he had become a familiar face on British television. Despite his work in such films as A Passage to India, Empire of the Sun and Farewell to the King, he never became a film star, but has continued in a succession of starring roles on television, he co-starred. He starred in The Little Princess with Maureen Lipman, which won him a dedicated audience, he is widely recognised in the Lloyds Bank television commercials. Havers co-starred with Warren Clarke in the 1991 comedic mini-series Sleepers on the BBC. In it, he and Clarke played former KGB spies who had assimilated into English life in the 1960s and were "lost" for 25 years, and living as Englishmen, their worlds are turned upside-down when they discover that the KGB is looking for them. As they resist going back to Russia, the ex-spies lead the KGB, CIA, MI5 on a madcap chase through England; the following year, Havers was the subject of This Is Your Life, having been surprised by Michael Aspel.
Havers wrote his autobiography, Playing with Fire, published in October 2006. In 2009 he appeared in the U. S. television drama Brothers & Sisters, the Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures. In February 2010, he appeared in the British soap Coronation Street playing the charming escort Lewis Archer, who woos Audrey Roberts. In November 2010 Havers became a contestant on the tenth series of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, which started on 14 November 2010. A week after the first episode of the series was aired, it emerged on ITV morning show DayBreak, that Nigel Havers had walked from the jungle; as a guest star in the 2011 Christmas Special episode of the worldwide hit television show Downton Abbey, Havers portrayed Lord Hepworth, a charming and hopeful suitor of wealthy Lady Rosamund Painswick, the widowed sister of the Earl of Grantham played by Samantha Bond. In the episode, Hepwort
Holby City
Holby City is a British medical drama television series that airs weekly on BBC One. The series was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin-off from the established BBC medical drama Casualty, premiered on 12 January 1999, it is set in the same hospital as Casualty, in the fictional city of Holby, featured occasional crossovers of characters and plots with both Casualty and the show's 2007 police procedural spin-off HolbyBlue. Its first executive producers were Young and Johnathan Young, who were succeeded by Kathleen Hutchison from 2002 to 2004, Richard Stokes from 2004 to 2006, McHale from 2006 to 2010, Belinda Campbell from 2010 to 2011, Johnathan Young from 2011 to 2013, Oliver Kent from 2013 to 2017 and Simon Harper from 2017. Holby City airs once a week, all year round, each series now contains 52 episodes; the show follows the lives of ancillary staff at the fictional Holby City Hospital. It began with eleven main characters in its first series. New main characters have been both written in and out of the series since, with a core of around fifteen main actors employed on the serial at any given time.
In casting the first series, Young sought out actors who were well known in the television industry, something which has continued throughout the show's history, with cast members including Patsy Kensit, Jane Asher, Robert Powell, Ade Edmondson and John Michie. McHale was the show's lead writer for several years, was the first British writer to become the showrunner of a major prime time drama. Under his tenure as executive producer, attempts were made at modernising the programme and appealing to a younger audience by taking on the filmizing technique and introducing musical montage segments into each episode. Twenty series of Holby City have aired, the twenty-first began airing from 2 January 2019; the show has run for over 900 hour-long episodes. It is filmed at the BBC Elstree Centre in Hertfordshire, has featured special episodes filmed on location abroad. From October 2010, Holby City moved to high definition broadcasting. Holby City has attracted comparisons to other medical dramas unfavourable, figures within the television and entertainment industry including Broadcasting Standards Commission director Paul Bolt have accused the BBC of squandering the television licence fee on the programme.
The series employs a team of researchers to ensure medical accuracy, utilises surgeons from different disciplines to check scripts. Cast members are taught to perform basic medical procedures, given the opportunity to spend time on real hospital wards for research. Holby City has, been criticised for its lack of realism, with the British Medical Association denouncing its portrayal of organ donation and unrealistic impression of resuscitation, an accident and emergency nurse at the 2008 Royal College of Nursing conference accusing the show of fostering unrealistic expectations of the NHS and fuelling compensation culture. Holby City has been nominated for over 100 television awards, of which it has won ten: the 2008 British Academy Television Award for Best Continuing Drama, one BEFFTA Award, two Ethnic Multicultural Media Awards, two Music Video and Screen Awards, four Screen Nation Awards; the show's first series averaged 9.27 million viewers, but apart from a rise in its fifth series, ratings declined year-on-year until 2009, with the eleventh series averaging 5.44 million viewers.
The twelfth series saw a small rise to 5.62 million. Series have drawn over 4 million viewers per week; the show began with only eleven main characters in its first series, all of whom have since left the show. New main characters have been both written in and out of the series since, with a core of fifteen to twenty main actors employed on the serial at any given time. In casting the first series, Young sought out actors who were well known in the television industry, something which has continued throughout the show's history, with cast members including Patsy Kensit, Jane Asher, Robert Powell, Adrian Edmondson, Alex Walkinshaw and Jemma Redgrave. McHale was the show's lead writer for several years, was the first British writer to become the "showrunner" of a major prime time drama. Under his tenure as executive producer, attempts were made at modernising the programme and appealing to a younger audience by taking on the filmising technique and introducing musical montage segments into each episode.
Twenty complete series of Holby City have aired, an twenty-first began airing in January 2019. The show has run for over 600 hour-long episodes, it is filmed in studios at the BBC Elstree Centre in Hertfordshire, with the 1960s office building Neptune House being used for multiple exteriors and interiors in the series. It has featured special episodes filmed on location abroad. From October 2010, Holby City moved to high definition broadcasting. In September 2016, as part of the broadcaster's Compete Or Compare Strategy, the BBC confirmed the show would be one of the first put up for tender. In the tender released in October, it was confirmed the contract, open to independent producers and BBC Studios, would be for 3 series of a minimum 50 episodes per series, delivered from December 2017 with no break in transmission and produced from the existing production base at BBC Elstree Centre. BBC Studios was announced as the winning bidder and will continue to produce the show through to 2020. Holby City was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin-off from the BBC medical drama Casualty, set in the emergency department of the fictional Holby City Hospital.
Young wanted to explore what happened to patients treated in Casualty once t
From Time to Time (film)
From Time to Time is a 2009 British fantasy drama film directed by Julian Fellowes and starring Maggie Smith, Timothy Spall, Carice van Houten, Alex Etel, Eliza Bennett, Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh, Dominic West, Hugh Bonneville, Kwayedza Kureya, Pauline Collins. It was adapted from Lucy M. Boston's children's novel The Chimneys of Green Knowe; the film was shot in Dorset. This British ghostly, haunting story spanning two worlds, a century apart, is set in 1944, near the end of World War II. Tolly arrives at his grandmother's country house, Green Knowe, after his father is reported missing in action, his grandmother is faced with selling Green Knowe for financial reasons. Tolly soon discovers he can magically travel in time mysteriously between the present and the 19th century in the old manor house, he begins an adventure that unlocks family secrets laid buried for generations. Exciting events include a terrible fire, a tale of stolen jewels, threats of a press gang. Maggie Smith as Mrs. Thomas Oldknow Alex Etel as Tolly Oldknow Timothy Spall as Boggis Pauline Collins as Mrs. Tweedle Eliza Bennett as Susan Oldknow Rachel Bell as Perkins Dominic West as John Caxton Carice van Houten as Maria Oldknow Douglas Booth as Sefton Oldknow Jenny McCracken as Mrs. Gross Christine Lohr as Mrs. Robbins Allen Leech as Fred Boggis Hugh Bonneville as Captain Thomas Oldknow Kwayedza Kureya as Jacob Harriet Walter as Lady Gresham On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 43% fresh rating based on reviews from seven critics and a rating average of 5.9 out of 10.
Tom Huddleston of Time Out described the film as "an wise but logically skewed children’s tale", the logical inconsistencies of which "largely restricts the film’s appeal to bookish pre-teens". Henry Fitzherbert of the Daily Express praised the actors' performances Smith's, noted that it "casts a magical spell by the touching conclusion". From Time to Time on IMDb From Time to Time at Netflix.com
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school in London, England that provides training for film and theatre. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious drama schools in the United Kingdom, founded in 1904 by Herbert Beerbohm Tree. RADA is an affiliate school of the Conservatoire for Drama, its higher education awards are validated by King's College London and its students graduate alongside members of the departments which form the King's Faculty of Arts & Humanities. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senate House complex of the University of London. Undergraduate students are eligible for government student loan through the Conservatoire for Dance and Drama. RADA has a significant scholarships and bursaries scheme, offering financial assistance to many students at the Academy; the current director of the academy is Edward Kemp. The president is Sir Kenneth Branagh, the chairman is Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen and its vice-chairman was Alan Rickman until his death in 2016.
RADA was founded in 1904 by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, an actor manager, at His Majesty's Theatre in the Haymarket. In 1905, RADA moved to 52 Gower Street, a managing council was set up to oversee the school, its members included George Bernard Shaw, who donated his royalties from his play Pygmalion to RADA, gave lectures to students at the school. In 1920, RADA was granted a Royal Charter, in 1921, a new theatre was built on Malet Street, behind the Gower Street buildings; the Prince of Wales opened the theatre. The Gower Street buildings were torn down in 1927, replaced with a new building, financed by George Bernard Shaw, who left one third of his royalties to the academy on his death in 1950. In 1923, John Gielgud studied at RADA for a year, he became President of the academy, its first honorary fellow. A number of famous actors took on leading roles at RADA, such as Richard Attenborough, Oliver Neville, Nicholas Barter, Alan Rickman. 1924 saw RADA's first government subsidy, a grant of £500.
The academy received other government funding over the years, including a £22.7m grant from the Arts Council National Lottery Board, used to renovate its premises, rebuild the Varnbrugh Theatre. In 2001, RADA joined forces with the London Contemporary dance School to create the UK's first Conservatoire for Dance and Drama; the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance joined this Conservatoire in 2005. RADA expanded its course offering over the years, adding Short Courses for actors and courses for American and Japanese students in London in 1995-98. In 2000 the Academy founded RADA Enterprises Ltd, which includes RADA in Business, providing training in communications and teambuilding that uses drama training techniques in a business context; the profits are fed back into the Academy to fund students' training. RADA is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London; the main RADA building is with a second premises nearby in Chenies Street. The Goodge Street and Euston Square underground stations are both within walking distance.
The Gower and Malet Street building was re-devoloped in the late 1990s to designs by Bryan Avery, incorporated the new theatres and linking the entrances on both streets. RADA has a cinema. In the Malet Street building, the Jerwood Vanburgh Theatre is the largest performance space with a capacity of 183. There is a 150-seat cinema. In January 2012, RADA acquired the lease to the adjacent Drill Hall venue in Chenies Street and renamed it RADA Studios; the Drill Hall is a Grade II listed building with a long performing arts history, was where Nijinsky rehearsed with Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes in 1911. This venue has a 200-seat space, the Studio Theatre, a 50-seat space, the Club Theatre. In April 2016, planning permission was granted for the redevelopment of the Chenies Street premises, to comprise the new Richard Attenborough Theatre, new library and office spaces, a refectory with public access and the Academy’s first on-site student accommodation; the RADA library contains around 30,000 items.
Works include around 10,000 plays. The collection was started in 1904 with donations from actors and writers of the time such as Sir Squire Bancroft, William Archer, Arthur Wing Pinero and George Bernard Shaw. Other facilities at RADA include acting studios, a scenic art workshop with paint frame, costume workrooms and extensive costume store and fight studios, design studios and metal workshops, sound studios, rehearsal studios, the RADA Foyer Bar, which includes a licensed bar, a café and a box office. RADA accepts up to 28 new students each year into its three-year BA in Acting course, with a 50-50 split of male and female students. Admission is based via the four-stage audition process. Auditions are held in London as well as in New York, Dublin and Leicester. RADA teaches Technical Theatre & Stage Management - a two-year Foundation Degree and with a further'completion' year to BA level which has to be separately applied for and which allows for specialisation in all theatre craft areas.
The TTSM course admits up to 36 s
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a town and civil parish with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London in western Kent, England. The population of the parish had reduced to 20,409 at the 2011 Census, it is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is 21 miles from the traditional centre of London, it is the principal town of the Sevenoaks district, followed by Edenbridge. A settlement was recorded in the 13th century. Construction of Knole House in the 15th century helped develop the village. Sevenoaks became part of the modern communications network when one of the early turnpikes was opened in the 18th century. In the 21st century, it has a large commuting population, although the nearby Fort Halstead defence installation is a major local employer. Located to the south-east of the town is Knole Park, within which lies Knole House. Educational establishments in the town include the independent Sevenoaks Knole Academy; the town's name is derived from the Old English word "Seouenaca", the name given to a small chapel near seven oak trees on The Vine around AD 800.
In a book by K. Baedeker entitled, "Great Britain: England and Scotland as Far as Loch Maree and the Cromarty Firth" it is stated that Sevenoaks "is said to be a corruption of Chevenix" There are few records earlier than the 13th century for the town, when it was given market status; the weekly cattle market was held in Hitchen Hatch Lane until 1999. It was closed to make way for the "160 BT building" in London Road. A food market is held in the centre of town every Saturday. In the Middle Ages two hospitals were provided by religious orders for the care of old or sick people those going on pilgrimage. Sevenoaks School, at the south end of High Street, is one of the oldest lay foundations in England, it was founded by William Sevenoke in 1432. Sevenoke, a foundling, had been brought up in the town. In life he became a merchant and served as alderman and Mayor of London. Founding the school and adjacent almshouses was his thanks to the town. In 1560 the school was granted letters patent by Queen Elizabeth I and became known as'Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School'.
It was "for the education of boys and youths in grammar and learning". In 1456 Thomas Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, purchased the Knole estate and built Knole House; the mansion dominates the town. The eponymous oak trees in Knole Park have been replaced several times over the centuries. In 1902 seven oaks were planted on the north side of The Vine cricket ground to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII. During the Great Storm of 1987, six of those trees were blown down, their replacements, planted in a ceremony involving well-known people from television shows such as Blue Peter and locals such as Gloria Hunniford and Caron Keating, were vandalised, leaving the one mature tree standing. The trees have been replaced and eight Oak trees of varying ages line The Vine. A serious railway accident occurred nearby on 24 August 1927. Southern Railway K class passenger tank engine No. A800 River Cray was derailed hauling a Cannon Street to Deal express, knocking a road bridge and killing 13 passengers.
The locomotive crew survived. The entire K class was subsequently rebuilt to prevent such an event from occurring again; the accident called into question the quality of track laying in the area. Sevenoaks is governed by a town council with sixteen members; the town is divided into six wards: Kippington, Northern, St Johns, Town and Eastern. The offices of Sevenoaks District Council are located in the town; the town is situated at the junction of two main routes from the north before traffic climbs over the Greensand Ridge which crosses Kent from west to east. That road was one of the earliest in the county to be turnpiked in 1709, because of the clay soils; the valley to the north is that of the River Darent. Several lakes are located along the course of the river here, the result of the extraction of sand and gravel in the past; the built-up area of the town has developed along the main roads. The settlement of Riverhead to the north-west is the largest; the 2001 census counts 18,588 residents within the Sevenoaks civil parish authority, compared to its population in 1801 of 2,600.
The built-up area of the town had a population of 24,987 at the 2011 census. Sevenoaks, like much of West Kent, is characterised by high levels of economic activity and a skilled resident workforce. A large proportion of that workforce commutes elsewhere to their places of employment to central London; those factors have pressure on the local area to build yet more houses. Many of those houses attract high prices. A wide range of middle-class occupations are in short supply locally. Industries such as finance and business services tend to predominate. Transport links are very busy and town centre congestion is common at peak times; the main industrial area is located north of the town, alongside the A225. Sevenoaks Quarry is on Bat and Ball Road to the north; the shopping area in High Street includes the new Bligh's development. It is a typical small town centre, with one M&S Department Store having opened in 2014. Bligh's Shopping Development opened in phases in 2002; the site was a meadow, before becoming a bus station and car park.
Access can be gained from several directions including the High Street and London Roa
Biblioteca Nacional de España
The Biblioteca Nacional de España is a major public library, the largest in Spain, one of the largest in the world. It is located on the Paseo de Recoletos; the library was founded by King Philip V in 1712 as the Palace Public Library. The Royal Letters Patent that he granted, the predecessor of the current legal deposit requirement, made it mandatory for printers to submit a copy of every book printed in Spain to the library. In 1836, the library's status as Crown property was revoked and ownership was transferred to the Ministry of Governance. At the same time, it was renamed the Biblioteca Nacional. During the 19th century, confiscations and donations enabled the Biblioteca Nacional to acquire the majority of the antique and valuable books that it holds. In 1892 the building was used to host the Historical American Exposition. On March 16, 1896, the Biblioteca Nacional opened to the public in the same building in which it is housed and included a vast Reading Room on the main floor designed to hold 320 readers.
In 1931 the Reading Room was reorganised, providing it with a major collection of reference works, the General Reading Room was created to cater for students and general readers. During the Spanish Civil War close to 500,000 volumes were collected by the Confiscation Committee and stored in the Biblioteca Nacional to safeguard works of art and books held until in religious establishments and private houses. During the 20th century numerous modifications were made to the building to adapt its rooms and repositories to its expanding collections, to the growing volume of material received following the modification to the Legal Deposit requirement in 1958, to the numerous works purchased by the library. Among this building work, some of the most noteworthy changes were the alterations made in 1955 to triple the capacity of the library's repositories, those started in 1986 and completed in 2000, which led to the creation of the new building in Alcalá de Henares and complete remodelling of the building on Paseo de Recoletos, Madrid.
In 1986, when Spain's main bibliographic institutions - the National Newspaper Library, the Spanish Bibliographic Institute and the Centre for Documentary and Bibliographic Treasures - were incorporated into the Biblioteca Nacional, the library was established as the State Repository of Spain's Cultural Memory, making all of Spain's bibliographic output on any media available to the Spanish Library System and national and international researchers and cultural and educational institutions. In 1990 it was made an Autonomous Entity attached to the Ministry of Culture; the Madrid premises are shared with the National Archaeological Museum. The Biblioteca Nacional is Spain's highest library institution and is head of the Spanish Library System; as the country's national library, it is the centre responsible for identifying, preserving and disseminating information about Spain's documentary heritage, it aspires to be an essential point of reference for research into Spanish culture. In accordance with its Articles of Association, passed by Royal Decree 1581/1991 of October 31, 1991, its principal functions are to: Compile and conserve bibliographic archives produced in any language of the Spanish state, or any other language, for the purposes of research and information.
Promote research through the study and reproduction of its bibliographic archive. Disseminate information on Spain's bibliographic output based on the entries received through the legal deposit requirement; the library's collection consists of more than 26,000,000 items, including 15,000,000 books and other printed materials, 4,500,000 graphic materials, 600,000 sound recordings, 510,000 music scores, more than 500,000 microforms, 500,000 maps, 143,000 newspapers and serials, 90,000 audiovisuals, 90,000 electronic documents, 30,000 manuscripts. The current director of the Biblioteca Nacional is Ana Santos Aramburo, appointed in 2013. Former directors include her predecessors Glòria Pérez-Salmerón and Milagros del Corral as well as historian Juan Pablo Fusi and author Rosa Regàs. Given its role as the legal deposit for the whole of Spain, since 1991 it has kept most of the overflowing collection at a secondary site in Alcalá de Henares, near Madrid; the Biblioteca Nacional provides access to its collections through the following library services: Guidance and general information on the institution and other libraries.
Bibliographic information about its collection and those held by other libraries or library systems. Access to its automated catalogue, which contains close to 3,000,000 bibliographic records encompassing all of its collections. Archive consultation in the library's reading rooms. Interlibrary loans. Archive reproduction. Biblioteca Digital Hispánica, digital library launched in 2008 by the Biblioteca Nacional de España List of libraries in Spain Media related to Biblioteca Nacional de España at Wikimedia Commons Official site Official web catalog
