The Samuda Estate is on the east side of Manchester Road, in Cubitt Town on the Isle of Dogs. With 505 dwellings it is home to about 1,500 people and covers.
Hedley House, named after Joseph Hedley, one time partner of Alfred Yarrow
Talia House
Halyard House
Dagmar Court
Kelson House, by the riverside, is a 25-storey tower of interlocking maisonettes, arranged on three levels in a fashion derived from Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation.
As a concession to the changing needs of its inhabitants resulting from the increase in car-ownership, the development included an underground parking area composed of 200 garages along with space for motorcycles. In 2004 the Samuda Estate Local Management Organisation distributed a paper calling for the refurbishment of the derelict underground garages as potential business units, with a multi-faith prayer facility, Tower Hamlets Community Recycling Consortium, and a workshop area for Local Labour in Construction. The LDDC built the Samuda Community Centre for the estate in 1986, at a cost of £350,000.
Contemporary culture
Photography
John Gay, the German architectural photographer, visited the estate shortly after it was built. 96 photographs he took of the Samuda Estate have been included in the English Heritage Archive.
Jonathan B50 visited Kelson House in 1973, and has published 7 photographs taken from the top of Kelson House as part of his Sunset - Moon - Sunrise series.
Literature
The Samuda Estate was used as the setting for Defiant Pose, a novel by Stewart Home.
Visual arts
Graffiti: the SELMO participated in the Greater London Authority's , explaining that graffiti was not seen as a major problem for the estate, appearing mainly in the communal stairwells. Caretakers were usually able to remove it quickly. When it presented problems, SELMO used specialist services to remove it. In light of far more pressing problems on the estate SELMO had worried about looking into alternative ways of dealing with graffiti.
Film and TV
The innovative You Have Been Watched was filmed in one day on the estate using CCTV cameras. See some images . This involved a high level of resident involvement, which was reflected in the narrative structure which involved the localCommunity television station having its data hijacked by another organisation. When this becomes generally known, the residents organise a protest which leads to the publicmock execution of the ones responsible. The film has been subject to critical attention in transgender studies.
It has also been used as a location for a number of films and TV Dramas, including Dirty Pretty Things, , The Face and an uncompleted film scheduled to star Harvey Keitel.
Privatisation
In 2005 the Samuda Estate was privatised as part of the Tower Hamlets London Borough Council's Housing Choice programme. A new Housing Association ToynbeeIsland Homes was established on a resident-led basis. However, in 2007, This was taken over by One Housing Group in 2007. In April, 2008 the local housing office was the site of a dramatic sit-in by a Board member of the Samuda Estate Local Management Organisation following their eviction from the 'Samuda Housing Office which they occupied since 2005. This coincided with the firing of the resident Board members of Island Homes by the One Housing Group Chief Executive OfficerMick Sweeney. Quoting a report from Campbell Tickell, Sweeney admitted they were guilty of "persistent serious failures in their duties to properly govern the association".
Barkantine Management Team, who had been fired from the Island Homes Board responded that residents were being treated with disrespect: "It is a question of professionals blaming the amateurs".
In a statement made in the occupied Samuda Office, the view was aired that "management does not like effective participation and would only like to play to it.
Another SELMO spokesperson suggested that One Housing Group were "flexing their muscles".
In what The Wharf newspaper described as a "war of words", a spokesperson for One Housing Group argued that the action taken was "essential in protecting the interests of residents":
