Houses in the Chapel House Estate were built on land acquired partly from the Charteris Estate and partly from the Strafford Estate by Poplar Council and designed in a ’Neo-Georgian’ style by Sir Frank Baines.
The houses were built by local building contractor, Griggs & Sons whose premised were located on the current location of Island Gardens DLR station.
Poplar Council agreed to provide one fruit tree for each garden with the planting being done by unemployed ex-servicemen.
Work began in December 1919 and in January 1920, George Lansbury the mayor of Poplar, ceremonially cut the first turf.
The estate was complete at the end of 1921.
The estate survived the Second World War remarkably unscathed. Not a single house on the estate was destroyed or seriously damaged.
