# Garden festival/pleasure island,Liverpool 1/10



## kevsy21 (Jan 23, 2010)

The International Garden Festival was held in Liverpool, England from 2 May 1984 to 14 October 1984. 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.The festival was hugely popular, attracting 3,380,000 visitors.
It 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, including a Japanese garden and pagodas. A large glass dome, the Festival Hall, formed the centrepiece of the site and housed numerous indoor exhibits.
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.Half of the site has since been turned into residential housing. The Festival Hall dome was demolished in late 2006.
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.[7] The redevelopment will see the Chinese and Japanese gardens being restored, as well as the lakes and associated watercourses and the woodland sculpture trails.
Langtree have also announced that they still intend to build the 1300 planned homes on the site "as soon as the market conditions allow"
Visited the site with Georgie(thanks m8:thumb)
the sitemap





the cafe has recently been fire damaged




inside the cafe




the dragon slide









the remains of a toilet block









the Coliseum














remains of the go kart track




go kart seating area









site of the demolised dome




what remains of the bumper boat lake


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## J_a_t_33 (Jan 24, 2010)

Nice site mate


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## Foxylady (Jan 24, 2010)

What a shame to see it in that state. Be great if they do restore it.
I really love that pic of the wooden gazebo thingy amongst the trees and undergrowth. It reminds me of the derelict rides parks in Japan.


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## kevsy21 (Jan 24, 2010)

Foxylady said:


> What a shame to see it in that state. Be great if they do restore it.
> I really love that pic of the wooden gazebo thingy amongst the trees and undergrowth. It reminds me of the derelict rides parks in Japan.



one of the plans submitted for the site,and restoration of some of the gardens





a picture of its heyday


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## vanny (Jan 24, 2010)

Thats absolutely fantastic, i haven't seen that dragon slide for around 15 years!


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## kevsy21 (Feb 15, 2010)

Latest update.
Developer Langtree will move on to the site today, the first time work has taken place on the derelict site in 13 years.
The £3.7m restoration begins almost 26 years after the International Garden Festival first opened to huge public acclaim in 1984.
After accessing the 70 acres of land construction starts within seven days to restore the Oriental gardens, returning them to public use.
Also revamped will be the lakes and waterways, the Moon Wall will be rebuilt, two pagodas restored and the landscaping of woodland trails carried out.
A new pedestrian access will create links with Otterspool Promenade together with a new parking and public transport facilities.
Glad i visited before the work started- here a few more pics


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## spacepunk (Feb 21, 2010)

Nice report, thanks for posting.


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