[1] The current building was commissioned as an extension to a 19th-century vestry hall which had been designed by George Elkington in the Italianate style for the Parish of St Mary Magdalen.

[2] A memorial to soldiers who had served in the Second Boer War was unveiled by General Sir Redvers Buller in the vestibule of the building in 1903.

[2] The memorial was removed from the building before it was demolished and, after being in storage for some 40 years, installed in St James's Church, Bermondsey.

[2] The site selected for the new building, which was just to the east of the vestry hall, had previously been occupied by Bermondsey Public Baths.

[12] Works to convert the building into a block of apartments known as "Bath House Lofts",[a] to a design by architects, Burwell Deakins, were completed in summer 2014.