The cash is being spent on a major improvement project for the Grade II listed park.  The Aviary Café will be refurbished and will also have a park ranger base, educational centre and community meeting room too.

Other building work includes the restoration of the Shaftsbury Memorial (Eros fountain), a new playground and the disused aviary will become a peaceful fern garden.

Liverpool city council's executive member for environment and heritage, Lib Dem Councillor Berni Turner, said: "We have had our fingers crossed that the HLF would approve the grant.  It's fantastic news to be given the green light!

"Sefton Park is one of the city's most popular green spaces and hundreds of thousands of people spend time there every year.

"These new plans will give the whole park a much-needed re-vamp and I'm positive that the improvements will attract even more visitors."

Other plans include reinstating watercourses, repairing footpaths, restoring all the parks' statues and fountains, planting new trees and shrubs and installing CCTV cameras.

Leader of the city council, Warren Bradley, said: "The park is in need of essential restoration and refurbishment work and many of the facilities require improvement.

"We want to make the most of the park and ensure it's an even more inviting venue for the thousands of residents and visitors who enjoy it every year.

"Work is to start next year, and it's fitting that such a historic an important green space is going to be he subject of major improvement during Liverpool's 800th birthday."

The area has already received £200,000 two years ago which was used to set up a team of landscape architects, tree surgeons, ecologists, engineers and water feature experts to draw up plans to improve the 269-acre site.  Now the HLF has awarded the city council a grant of £4.73 million to allow the project to go ahead which will total over £6 million.