Queen Elizabeth II Great Court

A new 'ground' level was created, a story higher than the original courtyard, with the space below used to accommodate the Clore Education Centre and the African galleries (which had been housed at the Museum of Mankind since 1970).

The South Portico was largely rebuilt, with two new lifts incorporated for disabled access to the upper levels of the museum.

A new gridshell glass roof, designed and built by Austrian specialists Waagner-Biro, was provided over the entire courtyard to create a covered space at the centre of the museum.

So a new outer wall was created to protect the Reading Room, to support the new roof and to conceal the ventilation ducts serving the spaces below.

North of the Reading Room there is a block with a museum shop at ground level, a gallery for temporary exhibitions above and a restaurant above that, just below the glass roof.