A description of the Camden Square weather station by Philip Eden
|Written on 11th July 2003 in response to a question on the uk.sci.weather newsgroup. Many thanks to Philip for permission to print his comments here.
Camden Square was established by G.J.Symons around 1860. He lived and worked there (the weather station was in a moderately large walled garden) and he produced the monthly issues of Symons's Meteorological Magazine and the annual volumes of British Rainfall. Symons died in 1900 and his work was continued briefly by H.Sowerby Wallis and then by Hugh Robert Mill. Mill retired in about 1920 and the British Rainfall Organisation was subsumed into the Meteorological Office, and the two publications were subsequently published by the Met Office -- until 1968 in the case of British Rainfall (although it is interesting to note that the terms under which the Met Office took over the BRO required them to continue publication "in perpetuity"), and until about 1993 in the case of the Meteorological Magazine. The property at Camden Square was acquired by the Royal Meteorological Society in 1922, and the observations were continued by housekeepers until 1957. The station was then moved a short distance to the gardens in Camden Square where it continued until 1969.
Camden Square was the only long-standing inner-London climatological station which was in a thoroughly urban environment -- the others, such as Regent's Park, St James's Park, Kensington Gardens, were in parks, or in the case of the Air Ministry (subsequently London Weather Centre) on a rooftop. It is therefore a very rare commodity in that it provides us with an idea of the inner-city climate. That's why it was so warm.
'The observations, which conform to Standard Meteorological Office practice, are made daily at 9h G.M.T by the Royal Meteorological Society's observers at 62 Camden Square, London, N.W.1 (110 ft above M.S.L.).
Measurements of evaporation are for a free water surface, allowance being made for rainfall. The entry c denotes condensation.
Readings of maximum screen temperature, rainfall and evaporation refer to the 24 hours commencing at 9h on the day shown, and minimum screen and grass temperatures to the 24 hours ending at 9h on the day shown.'