Time, for the most part, has been on the side of Woodside's residents and its neighbours, as have Eastern District Board members, who have voted down the Government's development proposals three times.

'We hadn't heard anything from the Government for a while, so we thought they had suspended their plans,' says Joseph Lai Chi-keong, a district board member and provisional urban councillor.

'Because the area is a green belt, we don't want it destroyed.' But when Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa announced last October that 85,000 public housing flats would be built this year, residents thought their days in the leafy surrounds were numbered.

Last week their fears were confirmed. The Government gazetted plans for an elevated road on Friday, with a construction start date of mid-1999. The road - an extension of another road below Woodside - and the site formation will cost $157 million.

What will eventually follow is a 1,880-flat development consisting of five blocks, a primary school and possibly two secondary schools, covering 2.65 hectares and slated for completion by mid-2005.

Last week, several members of the ICA and residents of Quarry Bay held a small, informal gathering at the house to highlight the plight of Woodside and brainstorm strategies on how to save it.

Proposals by the end of the evening - some serious, some not - were stuck on a makeshift board. Someone suggested asking actress Maggie Cheung, who had been at Woodside to shoot a scene for the Wayne Wang movie Chinese Box, to support the cause. Another suggested getting Swire Pacific to inject cash into it and restore it as a 'Swire museum', since it was Butterfield and Swire which first built the house around 1917.

'We could even turn it into a Country Park office, where families could learn about wildlife and get information,' said Ali Tahiri, a 43-year-old financial consultant and Woodside resident. Then, reflecting on the potential loss, he added: 'It's so quiet here. You can see women coming up to do their tai chi in the mornings. They use our backyard.' Woodside activists plan to raise their objections with the Government during the consultation period, which will then be submitted to the Chief Executive's office within nine months for the final decision. Plans for the school and housing unit do not need to be gazetted.

Ling Kar-kan, chief town planner for the Hong Kong District Planning Office of the Planning Department, says while protests by residents have altered past government plans, the Woodside development is overdue.

'It is logical for us to come to this site because it has been zoned for residential use for many years. The house is in the middle of the site and poses a constraint to the layout of the site,' he says.

'People know we have a housing problem and we are looking for ways to boost supply.' ALTHOUGH more than 80 years old, the red brick house with arched doorways has no protected heritage status, according to Patrick Hase, a local historian and research associate with the Centre of Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong. Nor is the house protected by the borders of Tai Tam Country Park in Quarry Bay, since it rests on a hill just outside it.

Despite this lack of protection, Woodside activists say the house merits special status because of its unique architecture and history.

'It is the only early-20th century civilian house standing. There are police and military quarters but this is the only Western civilian house that survives,' Mr Hase says.

'The Government is desperate to find a place to build, but this is scraping the bottom of the barrel.' The two-storey house is a colonial remnant, built for the families of two middle managers of Butterfield and Swire when its Taikoo Sugar Refinery and the Taikoo Dockyard (now Taikoo Shing) were the heart of industry around Quarry Bay. Other houses built higher up the road for more senior managers, and a cable car to ride to their homes, were damaged beyond repair during World War II, according to Mr Hase.

Woodside itself was occupied by the Japanese during the war, when its Chinese-style roof was damaged and never restored to its original splendour. The house had since been sporadically occupied until the institute turned it into a temporary home for their members in 1985.

Today, what was once two separate houses has been converted into one. There are high ceilings, wood floors and cream-coloured walls, with paint peeling off in some parts. The basement, where the shared laundry room, kitchen and sitting room are situated, is dank. A worn red carpet lines the floor of the main function room; on the balcony there is mismatched furniture.

'The rationale to preserve a building lies with the architectural value of building, and we have made a tremendous effort in saving old buildings. The hard fact is we may not be able to save every one,' says Mr Ling.

For him, Murray House, to be rebuilt in Stanley this year, is an example of the Government's good intentions. The house was dismantled by the Government 16 years ago to make way for the Bank of China Tower in Central. The bricks from the house - built in 1843 - have been kept in storage while an appropriate site was found. The Antiquities and Monuments Office had considered the same strategy for Woodside three years ago, but members decided it was not feasible.

Thirty people now live at Woodside - including teachers, artists, journalists, and their families - who must agree to be members of the ICA to live there. The institute holds various group activities to encourage human interaction and provides communal living as a practical application of its philosophy. Residents contribute a donation to go towards rent and costs and have few obligations towards the organisation, providing a lax, easy-going atmosphere.

Members insist they are protesting not because their own interests are at stake, but because the historical and architectural value of the house, and that of the environment around it, are worth preserving.

'We could live anywhere,' says John O'Mahony, chairman of the ICA in Hong Kong, which has branches worldwide.

'Members of our group are living in huts in some places. This is not about a bunch of gweilos who want to keep a roof over their heads.' Indeed, in their fight to save Woodside, the house's inhabitants have been upstaged by local residents who live nearby and who have a spectacular view of the house from their homes.

In January this year, Stephen Lo Gon-fai and William Chan Chi-kwong, both Quarry Bay residents, collected 11,000 names for a petition they sent to relevant government departments and the Chief Executive. Last week, they handed in 5,000 more to Executive Council members. The two men also started an environmental group, the Island East Green Action Group, as a result.

'I would be ashamed of working on a project if it was on country park land,' says Mr Lo, 37, a structural engineer. 'Although formally the Government says it is not within the park's borders, we believe it should be part of the country park.' He also argues that designated open spaces in Hong Kong, such as basketball courts, are mainly targeted at young people, and that the entry point to Tai Tam Country Park, where many practise tai chi, is one of the few spaces that can be enjoyed by people aged 20 to 60.

Mr Chan, a 40-year-old business manager, says Woodside would be an ideal location for meetings for the action group, but he is more concerned about the green belt and Woodside's history.

Mr Ling dismisses environmental concerns, citing an environmental impact assessment of the site. He says the study found that the vegetation was not of any particular species 'that we need to preserve' and that there could be 'compensation planting' after the site was completed.

Lisa Hopkinson, a researcher for the Citizens Party who has seen the study and was at the Woodside gathering last week, says the same report pointed out that the study was conducted during early summer and suggested that another survey be conducted to take into account seasonal differences.

The study also pointed out that 'from an ecological point of view, damage to the habitat itself can be more detrimental than the damage [to] particular species'.

The Woodside protesters are now trying to set up a meeting with Swire executives to propose the museum plan.

They have also tried to enlist the support of the tourism industry. Peter Randall, spokesman for the Hong Kong Tourist Association, says the association made its support for preserving Woodside known to the Government two years ago.

THE vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Travel Agents, Edmund Tsang Sik-yiu, said he would visit Woodside this week at the invitation of Mr O'Mahony to measure its value for heritage tourism and to gauge its accessibility for tourists.

His attitude almost guarantees that Woodside will have his support. Mr Tsang says the cultural aspects of Hong Kong, including museums, need to be widely publicised. Unlike Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, who has made references to preserving Hong Kong's cultural heritage, Mr Tsang believes the SAR's diversity should also be acknowledged.

'I'm not just talking about the British heritage, but also the Indian one, like Muslim mosques. If we are an international city, we should recognise the different cultures. That would be good for tourism,' he says.

Mr Lai says residents may try to negotiate with the Government and ask that only a school, but not the housing development, be built. But failing that, proponents of Woodside hope that if none of their own arguments will sway the Government to preserve the old house, the voices of those in the suffering tourism industry will.