It isn’t often that one realises that we are standing at a particular time in history, a moment after which things will change forever. Fortunately Kois Miah, a photographer, understood the importance of what was happening to an iconic landmark in a neighbourhood where he had grown up, tucked away in the shadow of Canary Wharf.

‘Evening rain, west building. Contrary to the oft-repeated story that the aerial ‘streets in the sky’ failed as social spaces, most of the residents interviewed spoke of them with enthusiasm; as thresholds between domestic interiors and the intensity of open sky; as places to chat or play...’ Kois Miah

Of course I knew Robin Hood Gardens, I had walked by it regularly when I worked in the East End of London . I had witnessed countless numbers of architecture students asking for directions cameras and notebooks poised and one couldn’t read an article about Brutalism and Brutalist Architecture (think the Barbican) without some reference to Robin Hood Gardens.

In the last two or three years Robin Hood Gardens has been in the news again, only this time there was a fight to save the buildings, the architecture and for some, the community. The fight was eventually lost and a programme of moving people out of their homes was begun.

I now realise that I had fallen into the trap of considering the architecture but not sparing a moment’s thought for the individuals and families that lived there. It took an artist like Kois Miah to open my eyes.

True to the people it represents, this exhibition is off Poplar High Street within walking distance of Robin Hood Gardens. The Poplar Docklands Light Railway is one stop from Canary Wharf and from there it is less than a 5 minute walk.

‘On the walkway of the east building, November 20-15. The mother of this young boy explained that he liked to walk visitors to the lift at the end of the deck, which he was doing here, until something in the view caught his attention.’ Kois Miah

Set amongst the architecture of the restored St Matthias Community Centre each of the 35 pictures tell the story of those on whom commentators have traditionally imposed their narrative.

I went around the exhibition three times each time seeing something new. The little girl peeking through the glass whilst her sister sits wrapped in a blanket on a sofa; the man smoking defiantly beneath the no smoking sign; and the old man who tends the vegetable plot is clutching a small plant in one hand and a stick to make the planting hole in the other.

‘Pat and her husband John have lived in the east block since 1977 in a two bedroom maisonette which, like any other up and down the country, they have made their own…  ‘We were living in Tottenham with John’s sister’, Pat recalled on how she was housed by the council. ‘I didn’t like it when we moved in but it gradually got better. I am a Catholic and my neighbours are Muslim and they are lovely…’ Kois Miah

The exhibition is a collaboration between Kois Miah and and Nick Thoburn, Senior Sociology Lecturer at Manchester University and local campaigning groups SPLASH (South Poplar & Limehouse Action for Secure Housing) and Docklands Outreach is open until the 21st of October.