Sayes Court Garden

David Kohn Architects, Sayes Court Garden CIC and Dan Pearson Studio have developed a proposal to create a 21st century garden and centre for urban horticulture at Sayes Court Garden on the edge of Convoy's Wharf, one of London's largest development sites.

John Evelyn established his gardens at Sayes Court in 1653, and two hundred years later his descendent W J Evelyn created a public park on the site, sowing the seed for the formation of the National Trust. Requisitioned during the First World War the garden has since lain dormant and only the ruins of its manor house remain.

The scheme proposes the creation of a new garden over the historic footprint of Sayes Court. The focal point of the garden would be the centre for urban horticulture, a new building that would reveal the manor house archaeology and serve as an interdisciplinary education and research complex.

Key partners include the National Trust and the Eden Project. The project has received the support of the Garden History Society, the Council for British Archaeology, Monty Don and Dame Joan Ruddock MP, who in January 2014 spoke in support of the project in Parliament and received a warm response from Architecture Minister Ed Vaizey.