AN EXPERT on Japanese horticulture who helped design Tatton Park's famous gardens has called for Liverpool's International Garden Festival site to be restored.
Masao Fukuhara, a professor at the Osaka University of Arts in Japan, is keen to see Japanese gardens reinstated in Merseyside.
His comments came ahead of a series of talks on the history of traditional Japanese gardens organised by the Japan Society North West.
Last night he spoke at Wirral's Ness Gardens and will tonight present a lecture at Tatton Park.
Prof Fukuhara said: "I will be visiting the International Garden Festival site as I am particularly hoping for the Japanese gardens at the site to be restored with the festival itself, because it is a great place for people in Merseyside to see different types of garden design. There is something spiritual and peaceful about Japanese gardens.
"Just as English gardens are becoming increasingly popular in Japan, so are Japanese gardens in England."
The International Garden Festival site at Otterspool was created in 1984 in the wake of the Toxteth Riots three years earlier.
The site, bordering Toxteth, had been used for 50 years as a civic rubbish dump and it was transformed into a stunning garden by Merseyside Development Corporation.
It included traditional gardens from Japan, China, India and other countries and was visited during six months by 3.5m people after being opened by the Queen.
But when the site closed the then city council decided against taking over the Garden Festival site. It was used for a while as a privately-run garden theme park known as Pleasure Island, but eventually closed and is now in ruins.
Merseyside developers Langtree has teamed up with housebuilders David McLean to develop large areas of the site for residential and leisure use, with the former gardens restored.
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FOR further information on Prof Fukuhara's talks contact Alice Hynes on: 0151 795 2128.
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