Henry Michell Wagner, Vicar of Brighton (1824–1870), and served a new area of poor housing in what is now the Hanover district.

[1] For the next 20 years, until his father's death, he had some degree of freedom to choose the sites and designs for new churches in Brighton, which was growing rapidly at the time.

Nevertheless, a local architect named William Dancy designed a building similar to St Mary Magdalene's (the church financed by Wagner in 1862) but adapted to fit the location.

In 1902, the ecclesiastical court ruled that many of the elaborate fixtures within the church, including icons, candlesticks and confessional boxes, had to be removed, after receiving a complaint.

[7] The main (eastern) side of the church consists of twin gables decorated with flint facings and red-brick surrounds.