Liverpool Boasts The World’s First Air-Conditioned Building: St George’s Hall
Nowadays, air-conditioning feels entirely ubiquitous. It doesn’t really matter which country you go to, there is a strong chance that you will be able to find somewhere that offers air-conditioning.
It is a great way to be able to cool down, being especially useful at times when the weather is on the warmer side. Obviously those that care about the environment and the fact that we seem to be determined to set fire to the planet would rather it didn’t exist.
Yay for air conditioning.
— Bobby the Airedale (@bobbyairedale.bsky.social) 28 February 2025 at 07:12
Air-conditioning promises the removal of heat from one location in order to achieve an interior temperature that is much more comfortable. The modern version of air-conditioning tends to be achieved using mechanical means, using vapour-compression refrigeration and range in size from small units that can be installed in cars through to much larger ones that can cool entire buildings.
Anyone who has been in a hotel in a country with high humidity will have appreciated them. What most might not realise, though, is that Liverpool had the world’s first air-conditioned building.
The Early Form of Air-Conditioning
In the ancient city of Hamoukar, which is located in what would be modern day Syria, there were double-walled living quarters that were designed with a gap between the two walls in order to encourage airflow.
Similar passive air-conditioning techniques were also used in the likes of Ancient Egyptian buildings, which then became widespread in areas such as the Iberian Peninsula, the Middle East, Northern India and North Africa. As anyone who knows and loves language will know, air-conditioning doesn’t just have to be able to making things colder.
Conditioning the air can also mean making it warm, which is how such systems were used in areas where the weather was cold rather than hot. It is also what makes the air-conditioning in Liverpool’s St George’s Hall such a special achievement, given the fact that it could be used to either heat people up or cool them down depending on the conditions.
A man named Willis Haviland is credited as having created the first modern air-conditioner in 1902, but there was system used much earlier than that in Liverpool that deserves huge amounts of credit.
St George’s Hall is the Original Air-Conditioned Building
If you want to explore the history of Liverpool then you would do well to start in St George’s Hall. Located on St George’s Place opposite Lime Street Station, the impressive neoclassical building was opened in 1854 and contained both concert halls and law courts.
Designated as a Grade I listed building, it is considered by some to be the finest Neo-Grecian building in the world. When Liverpool was given World Heritage status in 2004, both the hall and the surrounding area were recognised as part of the World Heritage Site until that was revoked in 2021.
Working on the roof of St George’s Hall. pic.twitter.com/Yo5N6TCIgb
— Kevin’s, Old Liverpool in photos (@sartorius_kevin) February 27, 2025
Between 1749 and 1824, St George’s Hall was the site of the first Liverpool Infirmary, proving that it is a building that is well-used to ‘firsts’. It is made up of a Great All, sometimes referred to as the Concert Hall, which is the largest room in the building, with a Civil Court and a North Entrance Hall both there as well as Small Concert Hall.
There is a Crown Court and another Entrance Hall beneath the Grand Jury Room. For a time, the Hall was also the location of cells for prisoners, which is part of why it needed air-conditioning.
How the Air-Conditioning Worked
Located in the basement of St George’s Hall is a unique heating and ventilation system, which had been designed by Dr Boswell Reid. It was the first attempt to produce heating and cooling for an entire building anywhere in the United Kingdom, with air being drawn into shafts at either end of the portico to the east and then heated by five hot water pipes.
The air was then circulated around the building by four fans that were powered by a 10-horsepower steam engine, sending the warmed air into the pipes that made up the system.
@unchartedliverpool One of the most beautiful buildings in the country. St George’s Hall stands like an icon outside Lime Street. The first sight visits see when they come off the train and into our great city #stgeorgeshall #stgeorgeshallliverpool #icon #iconicbuilding #liverpool #visitliverpool @visitliverpool #fyp #liverpooltok #liverpooltiktok #cities @VisitLiverpool ♬ golden hour – main character melodies
If the weather was warmer, the air was cooled down instead of warmed up. This was done by cold mains water, with small fountains located within the air shafts working to cool the air down as it entered the system.
This air, whether cool or warm, entered the Great Hall courtesy of frills at the back, or through risers in the seating of the Small Concert Hall, with stale air being drawn out through grilles located in the ceiling. A large number of workers would open and close canvas flaps using ropes and pulleys in order to control the movement of the air.
In 2005, an Heritage Group called the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers awarded its first Blue Plaque to St George’s Hall, confirming that it was the ‘World’s First Air-Conditioned Building’.
