Calendar: 1964-1965 Page 313

XV111 Annual Report buildings compare very unfavourably with those in many newer insti- tutions but the standards achieved and the valuable work done keep the College in the front rank of university institutions to-day It is very gratifying to record that the work of reconstruction at the former warehouse in Drury Lane to make it into an up-to-date Bio- physics laboratory has now advanced sufficiently to allow Professor Sir John Randall and Professor Μ Wilkins and their colleagues to begin their removal to these new quarters The first stage of rebuilding is practically completed and the final stage much smaller undertak- ing will carry straight on The Biophysics department which has won an international reputation will therefore very soon be able to resume its teaching and research at full strength and in very much better con- ditions than hitherto The space thereby vacated in the Wheatstone Laboratory will be invaluable to the Physics department for extension of its activities With appointments made to the chairs of Botany and Zoology which were vacant simultaneously the College is pressing on its preparations for new buildings at Half Moon Lane and the development of Bio- logical Studies scheme in which Botany Zoology Physiology Bio- chemistry and Biophysics are hoping to participate together with other departments to be established later There is an urgent need for teach- ing and research in these and kindred disciplines on much broader front than hitherto and it is confidently expected that such work will become possible with the completion of the new buildings in addition the present isolation of the Botany department at Half Moon Lane will be mitigated by the presence of other closely associated departments Also from the point of view of catering facilities and social amenities for these departments the new hall of residence near by on Denmark Hill will be great advantage There has been much talk of late in the London medical schools of the need for greater integration of pre-clinical and clinical teaching and from this has sprung the desire of medical schools to have their own pre- clinical departments in the immediate vicinity of the clinical depart- ments and of the hospitals Thus the new St George's Hospital at Tooting will provide complete course for its medical students and will no longer require pre-clinical facilities here in the Strand King's Col- lege Hospital also has put forward proposals acceptable to the Univer- sity for its own pre-clinical school These have not met with the approval of the University Grants Committee but if the Hospital brings them forward again later and they are approved the long asso-