16, Victoria Park Square E2

This building, dating to approximately 1888, comprises a former clubhouse and a chapel, originally part of the Bethnal Green University Settlement. Minor alterations were made in the 20th century. The clubhouse is a two-story building with an attic, constructed of yellow brick with a tile roof and in the Queen Anne Revival style. It features a three-bay façade with red brick dressings around the sash windows, and a modillion cornice—either a surviving remnant from the return side of the adjacent number 17 or a reproduction—below the attic level. This design refers to the architectural style of the earlier Queen Anne houses in the vicinity. Adjoining the clubhouse to the west is a two-story chapel built of red brick, with a hipped slate roof and in the Gothic Revival style. The chapel has first-floor windows with brick pointed arch hoods, and a canted, apsidal end above a square ground floor. The interior of the building has not been inspected. The University Settlement, established in the 1880s by Oxford graduates, aimed to provide social and recreational opportunities for working-class people in the East End. Initially based elsewhere, the settlement relocated to Victoria Park Square, first occupying number 17 and subsequently constructing this building—previously believed to be a much altered 17th-century house—as a clubhouse. Sources consulted include the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments' 'London East' and English Heritage historians' files for Tower Hamlets. It is listed for its group value alongside the Grade II* listed numbers 17-18 Victoria Park Square.