The building is on the corner of Above Bar Street and Ogle Road in Southampton City Centre, with shops on the ground level and the auditorium and other rooms above them.

Earl started preaching in the Philharmonic Rooms on Above Bar Street (on the site of what later became the Odeon cinema and is now shops) in February 1876, with a local choir to lead the singing and the widow of a Congregational minister playing the organ.

A clothing manufacturer from the north of England, Timothy Coop, donated £3,000 to Earl towards the cost of buying land and constructing a permanent building.

On 17 August 1886, a Trust Deed was signed, passing the ownership of the site and building to the trustees of ‘Church of Christ, Above Bar’.

Henry Earl stayed in Southampton for less than ten years (though it seems he didn't return to the USA until 1891), by which time he had baptised around four hundred people[3] and the membership of the church had grown to over 100.

In 1917, the final break with the American denomination came when British Churches of Christ were offered the opportunity to either join a national federation or become independent.

Leith Samuel had previously been a Missioner with Intervarsity Fellowship and was a gifted evangelist and Bible teacher with a strong commitment to systematic expository preaching.

It was renamed Above Bar Church, there was a growing commitment to world mission, home Bible study groups were introduced, and assistant ministers and pastoral workers were appointed.

Now, with a desperate need for action, another developer suggested a scheme with shops on the ground floor, the church above and still with an entrance on Above Bar Street.

Royal Insurance Investment Department took over the developer's interest in the scheme and covered a substantial proportion of the building costs.

Jonathan Berry - former director of True Freedom Trust and graduate of the Cornhill Training Course - was appointed Senior Minister in July 2023 and inducted on 16 September 2023.