25th November 2006
http://static.flickr.com/120/305746108_b85ed73c75.jpg
Printable View
25th November 2006
http://static.flickr.com/120/305746108_b85ed73c75.jpg
John Lennon's Eye
Violent night on Merseyside: a rocket
fired through a Croxteth bedroom window,
a phone box and a car gutted in Woolton.
Liverpool, Euro Capital of Culture, St. George's
wrapped like a birthday gift, John Lennon
is Mona Lisa with a red guitar, a vast poster
printed with 30 gallons of ink, but tonight
someone cut out John Lennon's eye.
His glasses bloody on Yoko's "Season of Glass";
the bark of Chapman's Charter Arms .38;
dark night on Menlove Avenue, Ocean Child hit
in a drive-by, a drunken off-duty copper. Oh Julia!
Bloody St. George's Hall, the bloody assizes.
Release the white doves, play elegies.
Strawberry fields glisten with bloody leaves.
Ghost guitars echo in Gambier Terrace,
in Mathew Street, crushed carnations
and musical notes trampled underfoot.
Someone cut out John Lennon's eye.
Christopher T. George
more thought provoking words from ChrisG.
that's very good Chris.
Ha ha! It would get ruined!!
Sad farewell to festival dome
Nov 29 2006
More than 20 years after watching the dome being built at Liverpool’s Garden Festival site, City Editor Larry Neild was there again yesterday – to watch it being pulled down
by Larry Neild, Liverpool Daily Post
http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/ic...9A5A40C808.jpg
A MACHINE dubbed Edward Scissorhands was yesterday recruited to snip its way through the large dome at Otterspool, once the centrepiece of Liverpool’s International Garden Festival site.
The £350,000 snipper resembles an extra from War of the Worlds and is so powerful it can cut through steel girders and concrete with the ease of a pair of nailclippers.
Over the next few days, “Edward” and a team of human helpers will reduce the dome to large chunks of steel, destined to be sold as scrap to China.
The dome was, in 1984, the exhibition hall at Britain’s first International Garden Festival, opened by the Queen in the summer of that year.
Story continues...
The site will look odd without it for a while whilst we all get used to it. Demolishion pics would great if someone could get down there.
I went past today...too dull for pics, except a couple of 'memory joggers'. Looked to be about 99% intact and no sign of activity. I did notice signs saying the road may be subject to delays between 11.30 and 1.30. Also seen some film crew caterers (Tele-caterers) and a policeman on the car-park facing the Britannia.
Yes it was a mite dull. I took these anyway.
http://www.liverpoolviews.co.uk/garden/bgf3011061.jpg
I woke to a scraping metallic sound this morning and guessed they had started the demolition. But when I got there with my camera there wasn't much action.
Plenty of people with cameras though. (That wasn't you I spoke to by the roundabout was it Cissie?)
I think the film crew thing was something completely different. They had a car on the back of trailer and were filming it driving up and down Riverside Drive.
Mike
The rear was being smashed in this morning, but my camera couldn't focus with the sun directly behind the hall.
The rear is completely open today.
Hard to tell just how much has gone.
2nd December 2006: Took a trip myself this morning, managed to gain access through another hole in the fence.
http://static.flickr.com/118/311880900_ef76656973.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/103/311880990_ab8ed90fea.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/122/311884812_0800fb9a20.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/115/311884393_5363e8c307.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/108/311884600_91a63b9a66.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/121/311885023_a36bdb67af.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/113/311885203_0665f55226.jpg
Other pics from around the festival site taken today can be found here.
Fine pictures.
:)
More images from around the site today (2nd December 2006) - Images of the Dome taken today can be found here:
http://static.flickr.com/104/311885574_337e615cc8.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/117/311885435_f590f576d4.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/106/311885365_c3ce2f2113.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/119/311885300_8127a0c123.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/107/311884871_416826291c.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/119/311884428_2b883161f5.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/100/311884116_5047ce0ffc.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/117/311883915_ec5ff6a379.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/101/311879464_8122c96c98.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/108/311879266_2423a77e70.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/116/311879094_90c969c629.jpg
http://static.flickr.com/121/311878578_1129ff217c.jpg
glad to see something finally happening here!
I just stumbled across the following which is taken from http://www.sundials.co.uk/tbsig.htm and it made me wonder what happened to the sundial. Anybody know anything about it or even have photos of it. Did it find a home in Merseyside?
CheersQuote:
Where in England during 1984 did Brookbrae exhibit a large analemmatic dial?
In the garden of the George Wimpey Homes at the Liverpool International Garden Festival the central attraction was a sundial designed by Christopher St J H Daniel. It was laid out on the ground and measured 15ft across. The visitor stood at the appropriate point astride a line marked with the mouths. His shadow (if he had been lucky enough to pick a sunny day!) fell across an ellipse of hour stones to indicate the time. Now that the Festival has closed, negotiations are taking place to try to find a permanent home in Merseyside for this intriguing sundial. There is now no public analemmatic sundial in this country, but they do exist abroad.
Mike
A NEW custodian was appointed yesterday to look after Liverpool’s International Garden Festival site for the next 150 years. The respected Land Restoration Trust will become stewards of the 56-acre site at Otterspool after signing a deal with developers Langtree McLean.
The traditional Chinese and Japanese gardens – currently derelict and badly vandalised – will be given a facelift and new attractions added to the site.
Langtree and David McLean, who plan to build 1,300 riverside homes on the site, will provide a dowry of £2m that will be invested to help meet running costs over the years.
Two decades of neglect have left the garden site in a pitiful state, the vegetation has been allowed to grow wild since the site closed in the 1980s.
Saplings planted in 1984 when the IGF became the showcase for Liverpool have now matured into young trees, the pathways are in good shape and the man-made hills command stunning views of the river estuary.
Langtree McLean last week submitted the planning application for their planned £250m development.
As part of the project, the 56 acres of gardens will be transformed into a new waterfront park, which, following restoration, will be maintained as a vital green resource for the people of Liverpool. Langtree managing director John Downes said: “We will do the restoration work and then hand the completed gardens to the trust.”
It is likely that experts in oriental gardens will be hired to help rebuild the Chinese and Japanese gardens and the lake that links them.
The aim is to re-open the gardens to the public in the summer of 2008 as Liverpool celebrates being European Capital of Culture.
The Land Restoration Trust was only established in 2004 as a joint enterprise by English Partnerships, the Environment Agency, the Forestry Commission and Groundwork.
David Evans, of the LRT, said: “We restore derelict, neglected or under-used brownfield land and maintain it for people and nature in the form of publicly-accessible green spaces.
“We believe our partnership with Langtree McLean will be a highly successful one, turning the Festival Gardens back into something which the region can be proud of, connecting both the existing and new community.”
IC Liverpool
Wednesday Dec. 6th
Wow, it's really going!
Cheers for the update, of all Liverpool's spaces of development, this for me has to be the most interesting.
..these 'homes' though. Yet more generic lo-density spread?
At around 12:30 they were upto the front curved part...its got to go soon.
Thanks for the pic, I'm gonna try and get down there again soon :). Isn't it weird seeing it like this?! I think I want it back :tear: