What's going on in the Haddon?

What's been happening in the Haddon?

Over the summer, we had a lot of building work done to repair some signficant damage caused by water leaks. 

While our Reading Room is back to normal, the repairs to our McBurney Room on our second floor are taking a bit longer than expected. 

So what does this mean?

The McBurney Room has new carpets, is freshly painted and has some lovely new round tables, all providing a relaxing work environment. However, for anyone wishing to use our Ancient Near East collections, some parts of this room are still cordoned off for repairs.

Please ask staff if you need anything from the restricted area and we will get it for you. 

There may be some noise related to the work being carried out on our roof but we will try to communicate this in good time. Plus we have free earplugs at our main enquiry desk in our entrance foyer if things get a bit loud!

How long will this last for?

We hope that final repairs will be completed by the end of October but we will keep everyone updated if this changes at all. Once everything is done, there will be some finishing touches to be made such as finishing painting the rest of the room as well as finishing off laying our new carpet. 

Any and all disruption will be communicated as soon as we hear about it.

We thank you for your continued patience and understanding during this time and as always, if you have any questions, please do just let us know.

(Last updated: Friday 3 October 2025)