GLASGOW’s Turner Prize-nominated artist Nathan Coley is the toast of a new social housing scheme in London after he gave the incoming residents their own mini-sculptures to welcome them into their new homes.

The sculptures are also a reminder of the fascinating history of the location in Notting Hill which Coley has featured in a new book – the Silchester (More West) development was once the home of a radical community of squatters who at one point sought independence from the UK.

Coley, nominated for the Turner Prize in 2007 for his exhibition at Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute, produced the 112 small sculptures for each of the apartments on the site.

The artist, who was born in Glasgow in 1967 and studied at Glasgow School of Art in the late 1980s, based the mini-sculptures on a larger installation on the site which itself is based on a Bramley apple tree.

Bramleys were an important element of the story of “Frestonia”, the radical community which Coley charts in his book To The Bramley Family Of Frestonia.

Greater London Council had taken over the 35 houses at Freston Road in the late 1960s but various plans to develop them fell through, and eventually a community of 150 squatters occupied the buildings in the 1970s.

A mixture of freethinkers, hippies, creatives, drop-outs and activists, they set up the “Free Independent State Of Frestonia”, and as part of their campaign to avoid eviction, the residents all took on the surname Bramley. They adopted the Latin phrase “nos sumus una familia” – “we are all one family” as their motto.

The group worked together as a community, printing their own stamps and creating their own passports.

They also applied unsuccessfully to the United Nations for independence from the rest of the United Kingdom.

Over time the community dispersed due to crime, drugs and social problems, but as part of the Peabody Trust’s development of the Silchester site, Coley has created the artworks to tell the story of the area.

Coley’s publishers Anonomie said: “Coley’s project is a pertinent and thought-provoking exploration of issues of housing, ownership, history and activism.

“With its shapes and forms based on those of an apple tree, Coley has not only made a striking steel and gold leaf rooftop sculpture, but also 112 small versions of the same sculpture that have been given to each of the residents as a house warming present.”