Solarium Court, designed by architect Henry Tansley - who also designed the Grade II-listed Bermondsey Town Hall (1930) - was the first central municipal health clinic in England, predating the NHS and officially opened in November 1936. The name Solarium Court derives from the light treatment offered in the clinic, a method first used in Switzerland. The health centre also offered a series of public health firsts: ante-natal and infant services, radiotherapy and a foot clinic.

Alfred and Ada Salter were the pioneering couple behind its development, as well as numerous other initiatives to improve the health and environment of the people of Bermondsey in the first quarter of the 20th century. Both Alfred and Ada were Christian Socialists, pacifists and social reformers.

Ada Salter (1866-1942) became the first woman councillor in London in 1910 and was elected Mayor of Bermondsey in 1922, when the Labour Party took control of Bermondsey Council. She was the first Labour woman mayor in Britain, President of the Women's Labour League and President of the National Gardens Guild.

Alfred Salter (1873-1945), a doctor trained at Guy’s Hospital, became MP for Bermondsey West in 1922. He was defeated in 1924 but returned to Westminster in 1929, remaining an MP until 1945. There are statues commemorating the Salters and their daughter Joyce in east Bermondsey, and a section of Southwark Park is named after Ada, as she designed it, as well as other urban ‘beautification’ (greening) projects in the local area.

There is art deco tiling (currently concealed for protection) above the front entrance to the building and a sculpture on the upper façade depicting a mother and children, by artist Edgar Allan Howes (1888-1969), who studied at the Royal Academy.