TIME is running out for the chickens roaming around a classic British-style garden villa.

The city’s culture heritage authority yesterday ordered the owners of Sassoon Villa at 2310 Hongqiao Road to restore both the building and its garden.

The inner structure of the villa, which has protected status, is in a shabby condition and must be restored, according to the city’s administration of culture heritage.

A Shanghai Daily investigation reveals that the garden of the privately owned historic villa has been turned into a farmland to plant vegetables and raise chickens.

According to the city’s culture heritage protection regulation, the property owners of non-government-owned protected historic buildings have a responsibility to repair and maintain structures.

If they fail to do so, the district and city governments can act to preserve those in dangerous condition, but their owners have to take over the cost, according to the regulation.

The housing authority of Changning District yesterday sent law enforcement officials to the site to investigate the case, an official with the authority said.

The villa, also known as Rubicon Garden, named after the road next to the villa, which is now Hami Road, was built in 1932 for Sir Victor Sassoon (1881-1961), the real estate tycoon and founder of Shanghai’s landmark Cathay Hotel on the Bund (now the Peace Hotel).

The typical British-style villa is a two-story brick structure covering an area of 800 square meters. It features a steeply sloped roof covered in flat, black tiles, red brick walls and 12 rooms — and the garden where the chickens now roam was the scene for several popular movies.

Guards of the villa were found by Shanghai Daily tending vegetables on the grass, and chickens, dogs and cats were let loose in the garden.

One of the guards was still hoeing the soil in the garden yesterday afternoon. She said her family from local Chongming Island was hired to watch the building and they were allowed to live in the villa.

“We planted the vegetables here since nobody ever told us we couldn’t,” she said.

Many original trees in the garden have been damaged. Inside the villa, there are holes on the wooden floors and ceilings. Interior walls appeared to be in poor condition. Bottles were strewn around the site.

The administration has asked the property owner to restore the garden and the building. Further investigation is also going on, an official said.

The villa was once used as a sanatorium for workers of the Shanghai Textile Industry Bureau and later served as private residence. A nearby resident said it was recently bought by a businessman and had since been abandoned.

The villa was listed as a protected cultural relic unit in September 1989.