Its name commemorates William Allin Hounsom, a local man and longstanding member of the Congregational church in central Hove, who had wide-ranging business interests and landholdings across Sussex.

The red-brick building, one of many local works by Brighton-based architect John Leopold Denman, is embellished with carvings that have been called "quite startling for a Nonconformist church".

Hove was a village and parish that developed rapidly as a residential area in the 19th century in response to the growth of neighbouring Brighton.

[1] The Union Chapel, founded in the 17th century in Brighton, extended its mission to Hove in 1823, when some members established a Sunday school and temporary place of worship in a building belonging to local resident John Vallance.

[7] In 1909, he was living at 41 New Church Road in Hove and was recorded as owning much land in the West Sussex parish of Yapton, near Arundel.

[5][10] In the meantime, Rutland Hall's fortunes were declining: it was requisitioned for wartime use and most of the male members of the congregation were called up for military service.

[4] During the interwar period, Hove experienced rapid residential development, mostly northwards on to the southern slopes of the South Downs.

Before the mid-1920s, the Old Shoreham Road to Shoreham-by-Sea formed the boundary of the urban area; thereafter, housing estates such as Hangleton grew rapidly (especially after it became part of the Borough of Hove in 1928).

[14] Both parties started raising funds towards this, as did the Sussex Congregational Union; the Cliftonville Church made the largest contribution by selling Rutland Hall for £2,000.

[5] Other local Christian groups were also represented: The Salvation Army provided music, and the nearby Bishop Hannington Memorial Church (Anglican) hosted a party afterwards.

[13] Local architect John Leopold Denman, "the master of ... mid-century Neo-Georgian" architecture,[20] was commissioned to design the church; in a presentation at the founding ceremony, he discussed his proposed plan.

[14] The new church had its own schoolroom,[24] which enabled the Sunday school to grow significantly: by 1939 there were 98 members, and the roll increased further when Hangleton received wartime evacuees from London and elsewhere.

[18] Other innovations included "Dramatic Services" (worship in the form of plays) from 1945 onwards—these attracted interest from across Brighton and Hove and further afield—and screenings of religious films.

[18] A stubby tower topped with a shallow pantile-covered spire stands at the north end;[27] this has three "startling" bas-relief representations of Saint Christopher, a pelican and a lamb—the latter two representing sacrifice and the Lamb of God.