Historic Liverpool: 11 photos capture the renowned 1980s Garden Festival with Yellow Submarine and Red Dragon

We rewind the years and take a look back at Liverpool’s famous International Garden Festival.

Liverpool’s Festival Gardens was once part of the International Garden Festival celebrations launched by Queen Elizabeth II in 1984.

Although the Festival Gardens are home to a beautiful park, the site of the actual festival was left in a terrible state. It has since been derelict for over thirty-years and Liverpool Council have been working to transform the site from landfill to 1,500 brand new homes.

Much work on the site has been completed, including the removal of more than 380,000 cubic metres of soil and waste, and a 24-acre urban garden recently opened nearby.

In November, Liverpool City Council appointed a team to assist in preparing a development brief for the residential-led redevelopment of Festival Gardens - aiming to create a 'thriving, sustainable, healthy and inclusive new neighbourhood'. Once the brief is completed, the council will appoint a development partner and plans for the site will begin to take shape.

With the next steps expected to be announced later this year, we have created a gallery of the Festival Gardens in the 1980s, to bring back nostalgia whilst wait to see what's next.