The case has been made for Birkenhead Park to get “world stage’ status as its bid becomes official.
It was announced in April 2023 the park, the first publicly owned in the world, would be shortlisted by the UK Government for consideration to become a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The park currently sees around 2m visitors a year but according to Claughton councillor George Davies this could rise to 5m if it’s granted the award. To prepare Birkenhead for this status, council park staff and volunteers have been busy tidying up the park as well as adding flowerbeds to certain areas of the park.
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It first opened in April 1847 and the proposed site for UNESCO status includes the original 44 hectares of parkland, the park’s eight lodges, and a number of Victorian villas and residential properties. According to the bid, the park was the “masterpiece" of Joseph Paxton, a highly inventive horticulturalist and landscape designer of his time.
The bid was submitted by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport who worked with Wirral Council. The government is arguing it was a ”forerunner of urban parks” and demonstrated local councils could provide new public parks for their people.
According to the bid, the park is pioneering and “started a new era for publicly funded and purpose-made public parks. It is situated at the beginning of a worldwide movement in which governments acted to create places called public parks.
“As an exemplar, it introduced and diffused new urban design concepts, solutions and innovations with global significance, and became a model for many public parks of international significance.
“Most significantly, the Park's concepts had a specific and well documented impact on New York's Central Park – and through that example, on public park design at many thousands of other locations in the United States and worldwide.”
The bid highlights the historical significance of the park, how it’s been preserved, and its importance in the surrounding area. According to the government, all the original built features remain intact following a major £11.7m restoration project in the 2000s to improve the park and replace elements taken away for use during World War II.
Sometimes called the People’s Park, it was created “at a time when most designed landscapes were private estates and therefore not accessible to the public, Birkenhead Park was purpose-built and publicly funded by a local municipal authority for all its citizens."
Another thing the government is hoping will support its bid is that no other public park is part of the World Heritage List and “would fill a gap” in being “a first step towards recognising how essential urban public parks are."
The bid has also highlighted the park’s importance during the coronavirus pandemic which showed “it continues to serve the social purpose for which it was created: supporting the public health and recreational needs of the whole population.”
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