| Location | Liverpool, United Kingdom |
|---|---|
| Type | Exhibition |
| Opened | 2 May 1984 by Queen Elizabeth II |
| Closed | 14 Oct 1984 |
| Demolished | 2006 |
The International Garden Festival was a garden festival recognised by the International Association of Horticultural producers (AIPH)[1] and the Bureau of International Exhibitions and held in Liverpool, England from 2 May 1984 to 14 October 1984.[2] It was the first such event held in Britain, and became the model for several others held during the 1980s and early 1990s. The aim was to revitalise tourism and the city of Liverpool which had been in decline, and the idea came from Conservative Environment Minister Michael Heseltine. The festival was hugely popular, attracting 3,380,000 visitors.[3]
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The garden festival was held on a 950,000 square metre derelict industrial site south of Herculaneum Dock, near the Dingle and overlooking the River Mersey. On this site was built sixty individual gardens,[4] including a Japanese garden and pagodas. A large exhibition space, the Festival Hall, formed the centrepiece of the site and housed numerous indoor exhibits.
Other attractions included a walk of fame, featuring numerous stars connected with Liverpool, and a light railway system (see below). Public artwork included the Yellow Submarine, a statue of John Lennon, a Blue Peter ship, the Wish You Were Here tourist sculpture, a kissing gate and a red dragon slide and a large red bull sculpture.[4]
A 15 in (381 mm) gauge minimum gauge railway system provided transport around the site.[5] The light railway system consisted of a mainline providing transport links between a series of stations at key locations around the festival site, and a junction linking to a branch line. There were also extensive shed and workshop facilities. A considerable investment was made in the purchase of passenger coaches, and in the purchase and installation of permanent way. Additional passenger coaches (of the 20-seat 'teak' saloon type) were borrowed from the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in Kent. The prohibitive cost of purchasing locomotives was avoided through the use of engines which were deemed 'spare' on other existing 15 in (381 mm) gauge minimum gauge railways, particularly the United Kingdom's two most extensive railways of this gauge, the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, and the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway. The cost of building and hiring passenger coaches was partly offset through sponsorship by the National Westminster Bank, whose name and logo was painted on the side of every coach. The visiting locomotives, leased coaches, and purpose-built passenger carriages provided the mainline service, whilst the branch line was operated on a shuttle basis by a 1970s-built diesel multiple unit railcar set (named Silver Jubilee) on loan from the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway.
Since the festival closed, the site has passed through the hands of a series of developers. From the late 1980s until its closure in 1996, the Festival Hall was used as the Pleasure Island amusement park.[6] Half of the site has since been turned into residential housing. The Festival Hall dome was demolished in late 2006.[4]
In November 2006 local companies Langtree and McLean announced plans for the site that will see more than 1,000 new homes built around the cleared dome area, as well as the restoration of the original gardens created for the festival in 1984.[7]
In September 2009 it was announced that work would begin on redeveloping the site in November 2009, after the city council gave permission for work to begin.[8] The redevelopment will see the Chinese and Japanese gardens being restored, as well as the lakes and associated watercourses and the woodland sculpture trails.[9] Funding will come from a range of sources, including the Northwest Regional Development Agency, who are providing a £2.1million grant.[8][9] The developers Langtree have also announced that they still intend to build the 1300 planned homes on the site "as soon as the market conditions allow", despite the collapse of partner David McLean Homes.[8]
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