Editing Leasowe (section)

===Solar School===
{{Infobox historic site
| name =
| native_name =
| image =
| image_size = 250
| caption =
| locmapin = Merseyside
| map_width = 200
| map_caption = Location in Merseyside
| alt =
| coordinates = {{coord|53|25|11|N|03|04|45|W|display=inline}}
| location =
| gbgridref = SJ 2837491974
| area = Wirral, Merseyside
| built = 1961
| built_for =
| demolished =
| rebuilt =
| restored =
| restored_by =
| architect = Emslie A Morgan
| architecture = [[Passive solar building design]]|
| designation1 = Grade II
| designation1_date = January 1996
| designation1_number = 1246185
}}
The Solar Campus, on Leasowe Road, <ref>see [http://wikimapia.org/4031698/Solar-Campus "Solar Campus"]</ref> is the former St Georges Secondary School, and is the site of the Solar Building, the first building in the world to be heated entirely by [[solar heating|solar]] energy. At 53.4°N, it is also the most northerly.<ref name=C20>[https://c20society.org.uk/building-of-the-month/the-solar-campus-former-st-georges-school-wallasey-merseyside The Solar Campus, formerly St Georges School, Wallasey, Merseyside]. Elain Harwood (2023) Building of the Month April 2023: Twentieth Century Society; retrieved 29 June 2024.</ref> The school was built in 1955, in the contemporary style as the St Georges Secondary School for Girls; in 1958, it was decided to admit boys, requiring a doubling in capacity. 

This was met by building a new block, now known as the Solar Building, to a design by Emslie Morgan, the Assistant Borough Architect, who spent a lifetime looking into ways of harnessing the sun's rays.<ref name=C20/> His design featured a high south-facing solar wall, largely of glass, to absorb the sun's warmth, a sloping well-insulated roof, and a low blind north-facing wall backing the buildings corridor. The solar wall is built of glass leaves two feet apart; these draw the ultra violet rays from sunshine and reflect them around the walls of the classrooms. The walls become warm and heat the air. Hardly any warmth escapes through the school's massively thick roof and walls covered with slabs of plastic foam. On the coldest days it is always {{convert|60|°F|°C}} inside and, in summer, the school is cooler than its more conventional neighbours; panels inside the glass wall can be turned to deflect heat or absorb it.<ref name=C20/><ref name=MM>[https://www.mainstreammodern.co.uk/casestudies.aspx/Detail/127/solar-campus Solar Campus 1961] at Mainstream Modern; retrieved 29 June 2024</ref>

{{citation needed span|date=June 2024|text=In practice, the large convector ducts which direct the warmed air to the colder north side of the building are a major safety hazard; fire breaks have had to be inserted to reduce or cut off the air flow. The result is that, on sunny days, the south glazed side of the building reaches unbearable temperatures in excess of 40&nbsp;°C, while for most of the time the unglazed north side never reaches a comfortable temperature nor receives much natural light.}}

A small secondary single-pipe heating system was installed to give additional heating on cold winter days with very few hours of sunlight but, by 1966, it had never been used and was dismantled. In 1963, the [[Liverpool Echo]] reported that during the previous winter temperatures never dropped below {{cvt|60|F}}, while in the summer it was cooler than the older part of the school.<ref name=C20/> {{citation needed span|date=June 2024|text= Today, the secondary heating has to be used very often and is expensive.}}

The property is [[Grade II]] [[listed building|listed]] and is maintained by the Children & Young People's Department of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, {{citation needed span|date=June 2024|text=which struggles to find the necessary revenue and capital to fully maintain it.}}