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After being keen to pursue UNESCO World Heritage status, Birkenhead Park has teamed up with New York's Central Park to boost its bid.
Despite the ocean between the two iconic locations, the parks share a huge connection. Birkenhead Park is considered to be the world's first publicly funded park, which opened in 1848. The park actually inspired the design of Central Park, which opened ten years later in 1858.
Frederick Law Olmsted visited Birkenhead Park before designing Central Park. He wrote of the park: "Five minutes of admiration, and a few more spent studying the manner in which art had been employed to obtain from nature so much beauty, and I was ready to admit that in democratic America there was nothing to be thought of as comparable with this People's Garden."
As reported by Birkenhead News, at a meeting of Wirral Council's tourism, communities, culture and leisure committee on Wednesday, Wirral Heritage Champion Councillor Jerry Williams announced that a representative from Wirral will be heading to New York. He told the committee the two locations continue to go "into detail over various issues we have in common".
He also hinted that there was an "exceptionally productive" Zoom call recently between workers in the Wirral and the Central Park Conservancy, with further meetings planned alongside the upcoming visit.
If Birkenhead Park were to secure World Heritage Site status, it would be hugely significant for Wirral as the borough looks to improve its tourism offer. Alongside Birkenhead's quest to become the UK's first-ever Town of Culture, and the ongoing search for the site of the Battle of Brunanburh, the status would likely lead to an influx of visitors.
The UK is already home to many World Heritage Sites - Notable landmarks that draw in tourists include the Lake District and Stonehenge.
Members of the council and important members in Birkenhead's community have expressed support for Birkenhead Park's mission to become a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Friends of Birkenhead Park chairman Graham Arnold told the BBC back in 2023 that the bid would "show both nationally and internationally the great importance of Birkenhead Park".
David Armstrong, assistant chief executive at Wirral Council, said around the same time that achieving the status would " bolster the wider regeneration of Birkenhead".
