International Garden Festival
| AIPH Liverpool 1984 | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Overview | |
| BIE-class | Horticultural exposition |
| Name | International Garden Festival |
| Building | Liverpool-Garden-Festival-Dome |
| Area | 95 hectares (230 acres) |
| Visitors | 3,380,000 |
| Location | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| City | Liverpool |
| Coordinates | 53°22′21″N 2°57′21″W / 53.37250°N 2.95583°W |
| Timeline | |
| Opening | 2 May 1984 by Queen Elizabeth II |
| Closure | 14 October 1984 |
| Horticultural expositions | |
| Previous | Internationale Gartenbauaustellung 83 in Munich |
| Next | Expo '90 in Osaka |
| Specialized expositions | |
| Previous | 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville |
| Next | Expo '85 in Tsukuba |
| Universal expositions | |
| Previous | Expo '70 in Osaka |
| Next | Seville Expo '92 in Seville |
| Simultaneous | |
| Specialized | 1984 Louisiana World Exposition |
The International Garden Festival was a garden festival recognised by the International Association of Horticultural producers (AIPH) and the Bureau of International Exhibitions and held in Liverpool, England from 2 May 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 suffered cutbacks, and the idea came from Conservative Environment Minister Michael Heseltine. The festival was hugely popular, attracting 3,380,000 visitors.
The garden festival was held on a 950,000-square-metre (10,200,000 sq ft) 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 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 red dragon slide, a large red bull sculpture and Kissing Gate (by Alain Ayers).
A 15 in (381 mm) gauge minimum gauge railway system provided transport around the site. 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.
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