Last Updated : 7 Sep 2008

Liverpool's 1984 International Garden Festival was the first of it's kind in the UK and the idea of the Conservative Environment Minister of the time, Michael Heseltine. It was understaken by the Merseyside Development Corporation.

The Festival ran from May the 2nd to October the 14th of that year and one of the highlights was the arrival of the tall ships during August 1st to the 4th. It's been said that over 3.5 million people visited during the summer alone.

The festival site, which was built on reclaimed land on the site of south docks, featured over sixty individual gardens, many having international themes. There was a festival hall, public pavillions and the "Britannia pub was built as part of the site. The garden site also had it's own miniature railway which utilized locomotives and rolling stock borrowed from permanent miniature railways in England. The "pathway of honour" captured the names of various Liverpool celebrities and exhibits also included a "yellow submarine" and a 3 ton wooden "Blue Peter" galleon that was donated from children's TV show of that name.