11 pictures of the Liverpool Garden Festival in 1984

Take a trip down memory lane with these archive pictures of Liverpool’s International Garden Festival, including the Yellow Submarine and Blue Peter red dragon slide.

Liverpool’s Festival Gardens was a jewel in the crown of the city when it opened as part of the International Garden Festival celebrations launched by Queen Elizabeth II in 1984.

A photo next to the iconic Yellow Submarine was a rite of passage for Scousers of a certain age - along with a ride down the red dragon slide.

Although the Festival Gardens is now 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, although costs have spiralled above the budgeted figure of £52 million.

But we have dipped into the archive to take a look back at the heydey of Festival Gardens, to bring back some nostalgia whilst we wait for the site to be transformed once again.

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