Pleasure Island - may 2009

[georgie]

On the return of a recent recce i decided to drop into pleasure island
this place was also called the international garden festival before pleasure island took it over

ive explored this place many times and i think snappel has been there when the dome was still standing sadly i never got to see it

not much has changed since the last time i explored this place however security seem to be none existent now

not a major wow factor explore but there are still things in there that certainly catch your eye dragon slide, go kart track,chinese pagodas,colosseum,cafe ,water fall, are all still there

i also noticed from the last time i was here there seems to be a lot of homeless people living on the grounds in shacks they have built out of whatever they could get there hads on by the looks of it

anyway a bit of history

The 1984 International Garden Festival was the first of its kind in Britain. Billed as "a five month pageant of horticultural excellence and spectacular entertainment" it took place on a site that only two years before had been derelict.

The Festival contained more than sixty individual gardens, a Festival Hall, public pavilions and even a miniature railway which toured the site. It also included a pub, The Britannia and a Pathway of Honour recognising Liverpool stars including Cilla Black, Ken dodd, and Nerys Hughes!

The Garden Festival was built on a site in the old south docks area by the Dingle. Much of the site was derelict and needed to be cleared of industrial waste before the landascaping for the festival could commence.


Why Liverpool and why 1984?
The Garden Festival was one of the first major projects undertaken by the Merseyside Development Corporation a body set up to in the wake of the Toxteth riots to regenerate Liverpool in the early 1980's. The legacy of the Festival was meant to be a unique riverside parkland gifted to the city and "available for all to share".

The festival site has changed hands several times since 1984. Half of the original festival grounds have been used for a residential housing development. The rest of the site, after various incarnations as leisure and entertainment facilities is currently owned by developers Planestation and lies empty and derelict awaiting development.


a few pics of what it looked like

and now...