The Festival Site
Since the festival closed, the site has passed through the hands of a series of developers. From the late 1980s until its closure in 1996, the Festival Hall was used as the Pleasure Island amusement park. Half of the site has since been turned into residential housing. The Festival Hall dome was demolished in late 2006.
In November 2006 local companies Langtree and McLean announced plans for the site that will see more than 1,000 new homes built around the cleared dome area, as well as the restoration of the original gardens created for the festival in 1984.
In September 2009 it was announced that work would begin on redeveloping the site in November 2009, after the city council gave permission for work to begin. The redevelopment will see the Chinese and Japanese gardens being restored, as well as the lakes and associated watercourses and the woodland sculpture trails. Funding will come from a range of sources, including the Northwest Regional Development Agency, who are providing a £2.1million grant. The developers Langtree have also announced that they still intend to build the 1300 planned homes on the site "as soon as the market conditions allow", despite the collapse of partner David McLean Homes.
Read more about this topic: International Garden Festival
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)