David Quinn | Freelance journalist and filmmaker based in Manchester

Rumble in the jungle
Estates Gazette
30/07/2005

Developers Langtree and David McLean are plotting one of the biggest garden makeovers ever. David Quinn reports on plans to revamp Liverpool’s Garden Festival site as a major mixed-use waterfront park

Passing through the huge iron gates into the site of Liverpool’s 1984 International Garden Festival is like wandering into the movie Planet of the Apes. What were once expertly manicured gardens are now rough and overgrown. Odd architectural features from two decades ago are barely visible beneath overgrown bushes.

Everything – the Chinese pavilion, the Festival Hall, the giant Tarmacked car park – has been left as it was, but is coated in a thick film of abandonment and decay.

If the outstretched, torch-bearing arm of the Statue of Liberty were to poke from the surface of the ornamental pond, in homage to the 1968 film, it wouldn’t come as a surprise.

Despite several proposals to unlock the Garden Festival site for development, and despite part being sold for housing in the 1990s, 88 acres has remained unused since the conclusion of festivities 21 years ago.

But all this is set to change.

Regional waterfront park

In September, developers Langtree and David McLean will submit an application to return civilisation to this ragged wilderness. They plan to develop the site as a “regional waterfront park”, the vast majority of which will be, for the first time since October 1984, open to the public.

The spectacular, yet crumbling, Festival Hall will be demolished to make way for 1,372 homes on a 20-acre plot at the western end of the site. A number of “fringe blocks” overlooking the Mersey, and an element of commercial accommodation, such as local shopping and community facilities, also form part of the plans.

A further 30 acres will be given over to the restoration of the ornamental gardens, parts of which were donated by the Chinese government in the 1980s and which, through subsequent neglect, have become a minor diplomatic embarrassment.

The remainder will be left as open grassland, with a “grand axis” and a route leading from the main entrance of the park to the banks of the Mersey.

After a tour of the dilapidated site, John Downes, managing director of Langtree, and Richard Dean, his counterpart at David McLean Developments, convene at an on-site Portakabin. It overlooks what will one day be the entrance to the new scheme. For the moment, the view consists of a couple of stagnant water features.

Several false starts

The two of them will have to do a lot to convince locals that the jv’s plans will be deliverable. There have, after all, been several false starts, with unviable proposals ranging from a 90-storey skyscraper to a theme park (see box, left). Downes says that, in order to deliver, it’s important to get the balance right.

“We knew about the aspirations of Liverpool city council and we knew we needed to present deliverable proposals,” he explains.

“We must shoulder a lot of responsibility. There’s a fine line between respecting the history of the site and generating enough revenue to make our scheme viable.”

That balance has been achieved by opening up around 70% of the site for public use – the council’s key aim — while developing a money-spinning residential element.

“The development agreement with the council took some working out,” says Downes. “The council was constructive — but wanted assurances that the gardens would be maintained.”

Although Liverpool city council remains the freeholder, Langtree-McLean – now established as a limited company, has a 150-year leasehold on the site.

Earlier this year, the joint venture paid £4.9m for the lease to Planestation, formerly known as Wiggins Group, which itself went into administration this week.

Langtree had been looking at the site for some time, but McLean bought into the project only after Langtree secured its preferred developer position in 2004.

Agreement on joint venture

McLean managing director Dean says: “We looked at the site in the past, as it was something we had an interest in. We had a good relationship with Langtree and, partly through a chance meeting, we discussed and agreed on a joint venture.”

He agrees with Downes that gaining the right to develop the site brings other responsibilities.

“At the moment, the site is ‘defensive’ against the river,” says Dean. “We need to open up the gardens to the wider world in order to secure them for the future.”

But while Planestation’s plans were blighted by a lack of enthusiasm from planners, Downes doesn’t expect problems on that front.

“We’ve worked in full consultation with the council, and it is fully aware of what we are trying to do,” he says.

Dean adds: “Liverpool’s being awarded Capital of Culture status in 2008 is a catalyst to get the scheme delivered. We and the council want the development to be open by then.”

For now, though, the site is being left to nature. The only work happening is a study of the local wildlife. As the scheme progresses, six ecologists will be checking that the local fauna and flora are not disturbed. This means that, for the moment, the gardens can retain their otherworldly appearance.