Historic park that inspired New York’s Central Park set for £1.5m upgrade in bid for UNESCO status

With nearly 140 acres of parkland, beautiful woodlands and an almost 180-year history, Birkenhead Park is one of Merseyside’s most popular urban green spaces. A leading pioneer in parks across the world, the site opened on April 5 1847 and went on to inspire the iconic Central Park in New York.

Known to many as the People’s Garden, it is acknowledged as the world’s first publicly-funded park and last year received government backing of its bid for UNESCO World Heritage status, alongside six other sites. It is hoped the status would put the name of Birkenhead on the ‘world stage’ and highlight the history of the area.

Currently, Wirral Council - supported by the government - is working towards submitting a formal nomination to UNESCO to consider the bid. As part of this, councillors are being asked to recommend at a tourism, communities, culture and leisure committee to spend £1.555m over four years supporting the bid. If approved, it will then go to the council’s senior policy and resources committee for consideration.

It has been nearly 20 years since the park last received significant investment and, according to a council report, “there needs to be a real drive and focus on completing the required preparatory work to support nomination, including developing the nomination submission itself, and carrying out priority improvements and restoration to the site’s physical historic assets and its presentation.”

The report added: “The condition and presentation of some of the park’s key natural and cultural heritage attributes and landmarks are not presently at the level of World Heritage Site expectations and will need to be addressed as a matter of some urgency for a successful nomination.” This includes new park railings and gates as well as improving the Grand Entrance, Swiss Bridge, and Roman Boathouse, boundaries, and lake platforms.

It is expected that £975,000 will be spent on physical improvements to the park, while £580,000 will be spent on increasing staff capacity, getting external advice in, engaging with the community, and creating the bid.

The council believes UNESCO World Heritage Status could see the number of visitors to Birkenhead Park double with nearly 2m people a year currently visiting and UK World Heritage Sites generating on average nearly £6m a year.

Once an evaluation of the park has been completed, there is an expectation the bid will be fully submitted by February 2026 and the World Heritage Status could be given to the site as early as the summer of 2027.