The national garden festivals were part of the cultural regeneration of large areas of derelict land in Britain'sindustrial districts during the 1980s and early 1990s. Five were held in total – one every two years, each in a different town or city – after the idea was pushed by the Conservative environment secretary Michael Heseltine in 1980. They were based on the German post-war Bundesgartenschau concept for reclaiming large areas of derelict land in cities, and cost from £25 million to £70 million each. They reclaimed the contaminated former sites of large industrial concerns such as steelworks.
Liverpool Garden Festival, 1984. Now a mix of housing, derelict sites (some intended for house building as of 2013), and a section of parkland renovated to restore public access in the early 2010s.