After 100 years of pharmacy teaching at Chelsea, the department of pharmacy at King's College London has moved across the Thames to its new site in Waterloo. Zoë Gross went to see the department's new home on the fifth floor of the Franklin-Wilkins building
The department of pharmacy, King's College London, has moved into its new home in the Franklin-Wilkins building at the college's Waterloo campus, close to Waterloo station, London. Pharmacy staff and students occupy the fifth (top) floor of this 70-year-old building, which is to be officially opened in March. The move took place last summer and was completed by mid-September. Both staff and students alike are still busy settling in.
The Franklin-Wilkins building, previously occupied by the Laboratory of the Government Chemist, is named after Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins, who carried out research together at King's on the X-ray defraction of DNA and the development of the double-helix structure. Renovations to the existing building took place over a period of two years and now three and a half thousand students from the schools of health and life sciences, education, management and nursing studies all use the facilities available on site. The building has been designed to suit the needs of those studying and working there.
Professor Christopher Marriott (head of department and professor of pharmaceutics, department of pharmacy) showed The Journal around the building recently. The main auditorium, which seats around 360 people, is on the ground floor and is used by several faculties, including the department of pharmacy. There are also a number of smaller lecture theatres and classrooms on the first and second floors of the building.
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The main auditorium in the Franklin-Wilkins building is used by various faculties |
The department of pharmacy's new teaching facilities on the top floor of the Franklin-Wilkins building include a number of teaching laboratories, small teaching rooms, staff rooms and research laboratories. Professor Marriott said that for the first time all pharmacy staff were located on the same floor, which meant that they were now much closer to the rest of their colleagues. There are currently almost 300 pharmacy students, 60 postgraduate research students, 45 MSc taught students and 25 academic staff working in the department.
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A first year practical class in the new dispensing laboratory |
The department also has an instrument laboratory for spectroscopy work and a molecular graphics laboratory for carrying out dry experimental work and looking at computer models of drugs. A radiopharmacy/ sterile products room is in the process of being fitted and a pharmacy studio - a simulated set-up of a community pharmacy similar to one that was in operation at Chelsea - is due to be built.
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The radiopharmacy suite will also be used for sterile products teaching |
The first three years of the MPharm course cover pharmacy practice and basic pharmaceutical sciences, with the first semester of the first year devoted entirely to a foundation course. The programme is taught in four main teaching streams (sources and chemistry of drugs, dosage form design and manufacture, scientific basis of therapeutics and pharmacy practice) and is made up of lectures, practical classes, tutorials, seminars and workshops. The fourth year consists of clinical pharmacy teaching, two electives and a term-long research project which can be either laboratory or field-based.
Chelsea to Waterloo: What do people think?The Chelsea college of science and technology became part of King's College London, in 1985 and, with the merger, the decision was taken to ration-alise the number of King's sites. Both the Chelsea site in Manresa Road and the college's Kensington campus, which was home to the rest of the school of health and life sciences, have been sold and students and staff relocated to other King's campuses.Professor Marriott, commenting on the Chelsea site, said that the building in Chelsea was over 100 years old and was becoming unsuitable for its intended purpose. Without gutting the premises, there was no more that could be done to it, he said. He continued: "Staff liked it, students liked it and there was some feeling, among staff particularly, that they would have liked to have stayed at Chelsea. But having moved to a completely refurbished building designed for our own purposes, we are very happy to be here." Professor Marriott said that one of the advantages of the new building was that it was situated closer to the other King's College campuses. He pointed out that the Strand, Denmark Hill and London Bridge campuses, could all be seen out of the windows of the department of pharmacy's new instrument laboratory. Professor Marriott also said that the move had enabled the pharmacy department to accommodate the extra 100 students who would be joining the four year master of pharmacy degree programme in September. The new building had also allowed pharmacy students to interact with students from other disciplines rather than being isolated in Chelsea. Professor Robert Hider (head of the school of health and life sciences), also commenting on the move, said that Chelsea had been rather isolated from a number of the other health and life science departments. The new location was very convenient for travelling from Waterloo station to meetings both in the United Kingdom and Europe, he added. Dr Anthony Theobald (senior lecturer) and Mr Vernon Dawes (senior and admissions tutor) felt that they were academically better off since the move and that the new site was better for students. So how have the students felt about the move? Two third year representatives said that it was "a shock to the system" and like starting university again. Although there were a few teething problems at first, the students seem to be in favour of the move and said that the new building provided a better environment to work in. However, they said that, because of the size of the building and the number of students from other faculties, they felt that they were mixing less with their pharmacy colleagues, especially the first years. The students also commented that the Chelsea Pharmacy Students Association was still in operation and that it would eventually become integrated with other societies on site. |
Zoë Gross, a former King's student, is on the staff of The Pharmaceutical Journal