King’s College London’s long-standing air pollution observatory on the Marylebone Road has been upgraded. This facility has been the cornerstone of the UK understanding of air pollution concentrations close to roads, and the effect that these have on human health, for over 15 years. An injection of funds to enlarge the facility and broaden the range of measurements was provided by the NERC ClearfLo and NERC/MRC Traffic projects.

The site has always bristled with gaseous and particulate measurement equipment from a variety of Defra monitoring and research projects run by the Environmental Research Group. However, this enlarged facility now provides room for an Aerosol Mass Spectrometer, which will analyse the chemical composition of individual particles, meteorological measurements by the King’s Geography Department, and laboratory space for pioneering field based toxicological analysis by the Environmental Research Group.

These additional facilitates have been accompanied by funding from Defra to renew the existing infrastructure. Dr David Green of the Environmental Research Group said "It was great working with award-winning Sarah Wigglesworth Architects to create a design solution which was practical for our scientific needs and was also a structure of architectural merit."

Item date 01/12/2011