Saracen Street was a new street formed when the Lansbury Estate was built.
The Lansbury Estate council housing estate was itself named after George Lansbury, a Poplar councillor and Labour Party MP.
The estate is one of the largest such estates in London and is bounded by the East India Dock Road, the Docklands Light Railway to the east and the Limehouse Cut.
The construction of the estate started in 1950/1 as part of the Festival of Britain, with the Chrisp Street Market area. The construction of the estate extended eastwards with the final phase at Pigott Street finished in 1982.
The ethos of the design was that the new development should comprise neighbourhoods of everything that a community required – housing, churches, schools, an old people’s home, pubs, open spaces and a shopping area. Traditional materials were used in the construction, such as London stock bricks and Welsh slate.
