Since books were first kept on the site in the early twelfth century, the Bodleian Library in Oxford has stood as a symbol of British learning.
Now a radical plan to turn the university library, a national treasure house, into a pay-as-you-enter visitor centre is provoking a fierce war of words.
The so-called theme park proposal, described by its opponents as 'sacrilegious' and 'a desecration', has been put forward by the management of the library itself. If approved, it would mean a complete change to the nature of the historic Old Quad at the heart of the library.
Opposition to the scheme from Oxford's town and gown already echoes the ferocity of last year's long-running feud about the fundamental changes made to the Great Court in the centre of London's British Museum. It also threatens to split the heritage community in two, as the impoverished Bodleian struggles to find a way to make ends meet.
The Oxford courtyard, properly known as The Old Schools Quadrangle, is the familiar subject of thousands of paintings and postcards and is used as a backdrop in films and in television advertisements and dramas.
Traditionally, it has been freely used as a thoroughfare by students, tourists and the people of Oxford, but a suggested new side entrance for paying visitors would mean the closure of all other points of access between the hours of 10am and 6pm. It would also mean cutting a new doorway right through the library's Great Gate, which dates back to 1610.
Dissenting staff members have argued the plan is nothing but commercial vandalism. One insider, who wished to remain anonymous, has attacked his employers for disregarding the founding principles of the library, which was established for the use of everyone.
Representations have been made to the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Colin Lucas, and this weekend he is believed to be considering calling on the library to hold back its plans.
But the proposed building work has been drawn up for scrutiny by the local planning authority and could eventually be funded by a Lottery grant. The university says it hopes that its visitor programme would reduce noise and congestion, as well as boosting library funds. It has also said it is willing to look at a permit system to allow some residents to use the quad without paying a fee.
'The university believes it is important that local residents can continue to enjoy free access to the historic spaces of the Bodleian,' a spokeswoman said.
'Rather than simply closing the gates to all tourists, we are taking a great deal of care to find a proposal which balances the operational needs of a working library with efforts to provide well-managed access to an important heritage site.'
One critic of the scheme, Maria Hamilton, from nearby Abingdon, has compared the library authority's activities with those of the Taliban in Afghanistan. 'Even the Taliban did not go so far as to ask for money to carry out their vandalism of historic artefacts', she argues in the Oxford Times .
John Goddard, the chair of the city's planning committee, has voiced his strong disapproval of the plan too. 'This is desecration. I find it very hard to believe that this is a good idea,' he said. 'I don't see why we need to knock a hole in this great building.'
Jeanine Alton, who works as a tour guide at the Bodleian, has questioned the financial assumptions behind the scheme. She argues that the cost of hiring new staff to handle the paying customers will eat into the projected cash benefits.
Some academics, however, are more sympathetic to the Bodleian's plight. Mark Philip, a politics don at Oriel College, said he could see why the library had considered a commercial venture.
'It is a shame,' he said. 'Without any other visible means of income for the library, though, what else can they do? It is a fantastic building and a major national research resource, but they have already had to cut back on services for the reader.'
The Bodleian is a deposit library which is legally entitled to free copies of all books printed in Great Britain, and it is particularly rich in Oriental manuscripts and collections of English literature. An early library on the site was fully secured by the university in 1410. Over the next century and a half it gradually declined in importance until it was restored by the collector Sir Thomas Bodley and reopened in 1602.
Several new buildings went up at this point and other additions were made up to the beginning of the nineteenth century. A new building designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, architect of the brick shell of Tate Modern in London, was opened in 1946.
The current controversial proposal is not the first time the quiet world of the Bodleian has been threatened. As far back as 1866 it was mooted that the library should move to the grounds of the Angel hotel in the High Street to make way for a new examination schools complex. A little later, the authorities even suggested it should be moved out to the university parks, an idea that prompted a campaign of protest. This weekend, facing a modern campaign of protest, the University of Oxford has agreed to go into consultation with planning officers and to refine their proposals.
'The university is conscious of the comments raised during the ongoing consultation process, which we would hope to reflect in subsequent planning applications,' a spokeswoman said.
The architect Maxwell Hutchinson, a former president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, said that, while he was not against additions to listed buildings in principle, the architects who were engaged would have to work sensitively with English Heritage.
