Campaign to save historic Sayes Court garden Portrait of John Evelyn (1620-1706), diarist, horticulturist and founder member of the Royal Society In a letter to his father-in-law, Evelyn describes an inner private space, with an arbour, a walled flower and herb garden, and glass beehives. Beyond this, a larger garden with a terrace walk overlooking a parterre, a 300-tree orchard, an ornamental lake and an avenue of trees. Most traces of the original house and gardens have vanished. In 1694, Evelyn moved back to Wotton, in Surrey, and rented out his London pad. His tenants were not ideal - first he let it to Captain (later Admiral) Benbow, scourge of the French. He also - as Evelyn complained in his letters - scourged Sayes Court's borders. Worse was to come a few years later, when the house was lent to Tsar Peter of Russia for three months, a stay which culminated in Evelyn being compensated £350 for damages - nearly £40,000 in today's money. Apparently the Tzar ruined some of Evelyn's prized holly hedges while being pushed around the garden in a wheelbarrow for fun. Evelyn outlived his sons, and after his grandson inherited the estate it was quickly broken up. The site of the main building was used as a poor house, a penal transportation depot, and a clothing factory. But in 1869, more than 200 years after Evelyn built his garden, his descendant William John Evelyn bought back as much of the estate as he could. Here he created a public garden, playground and almshouses. In 1884, he approached the social reformer Octavia Hill with a proposal for Sayes Court to be publicly owned and managed in the public interest. It was from this idea that the National Trust was born but, sadly, it took 10 years, by which time the chance to take over Sayes Court had passed. In 1914 it was requisitioned for war use, and was owned by the Ministry of Defence until 1980, when it was bought by News International, who sold it to the Hong Kong holding company Hutchison Whampoa in 2000. Besides the heritage campaign, there are many other pressures on both the planning authorities and the developers to build community assets on the site, as well as housing. In the current plans, the site of the old Sayes Court garden is occupied by a new primary school. "One of the major influences on the new master plan has been the history and legacy of Sir John Evelyn," says a Hutchison Whampoa spokesman. The proposals include plans for the incorporation of the remains of foundations of the old Manor into a new cultural/educational centre. While little remains of the actual gardens he laid out, his writings and ideas live on and will be used to guide all the landscape design. Evelyn's reputation will survive through his famous treatise on trees, and his diaries. The question is whether his garden will shine out from gritty east London, or be paved over once again. London's lost garden