The Settlement, an institution "invented" in the 1880's "to bridge the gulf between the classes" has no present day equivalent- the modern community centre is not the same.
In the latter part of the nineteenth century, the perceived cause of the social crisis in London and other large cities was the geographical separation of classes. Large parts of the city, principally the East End, no longer had any middle -class inhabitants, and so lacked the political and cultural guidance that the middle classes was thought to provide, while the middle class had lost touch with the realities of working class life. In the words of Walter Besant, the East End was "less known to Englishmen than if it had been situated in the wildest part of Colorado, or amongst the pine forests of British Columbia.
The settlement, proposed to restore the contact between classes by providing a building in working class neighbourhoods where young middle class professionals would live. While working in their usual occupations as barristers, civil servants or architects, they would spend their leisure time with the local inhabitants, who were able to join the settlement and use it as a social club.