Designed by Trevor Dannatt, it is believed to be the only Quaker Meeting House in Britain built in the concrete Brutalist style.

Quakers met at various places in south-east London from the late seventeenth century onwards, including Greenwich, Deptford and Woolwich.

The Congregationalists leased Quakers a small (0.044 ha) building plot at the end of Independents Road, next to their church hall.

Dannatt (a Congregationalist) and Happold (a Quaker) had recently worked together on the new assembly hall (also Grade II listed) at Bootham School.

The structure has resemblances to Dannatt's Bootham School assembly hall: it rests on five concrete piers, and the walls function as beams supporting the floor.

The trussed roof structure, with exposed timber compression struts and steel tension members carrying the lantern, is somewhat simpler, having been designed to be within the competence of a carpenter.

To the west of the meeting room, a large lobby and essential services (kitchen, toilet, storage) are enclosed by a cavity wall in stock brick and have a flat roof.

Otherwise the space has only a single window at low level, which "provides the visitor with a view of the street he has just come from – a means of reorientation after the spiral journey".

The special light fittings were designed by the architect, and echo the shape of the room; originally made from offcuts of the zinc roof covering, they have been reconstructed in stainless steel.

At the lower level a long "committee room" or classroom, opening off a lobby, can be divided into two unequal halves by a retractable screen.

The Civic Trust citation refers to "a good neighbourly building where the architectural concept is enhanced by the quality of detailing and workmanship of the finished product".