The church was founded in 1897 as an offshoot from an earlier Congregational chapel, and initially met in hired premises.

[1][4] After the Church of England disposed of it, the building had been acquired by Eastbourne Council and had been renamed Grove Hall.

[3] The congregation sought a permanent building of their own,[3] and began the process in 1903 when local architect Henry Ward was commissioned to design a church on a site on South Street, close to the existing premises on Saffrons Road.

[5] The foundation stone was laid by Reverend Thompson on 6 May 1903; it recorded the names of Henry Ward, the architect, and the building firm Padgham and Hutchinson of St Leonards-on-Sea.

Born in 1707, she embraced Methodist ideas, but in the following decade—influenced by the preaching of George Whitefield—she moved towards more Calvinistic doctrines, and in 1783 she formally founded her Connexion.

The most recent pastor, David Batchelor, was appointed in October 2010[3] after graduating from Oak Hill Theological College.

He designed many religious and secular buildings in Hastings, St Leonards-on-Sea, Bexhill-on-Sea and Eastbourne[2] as well as further afield.

[11] The "quirky",[2] "busy"[11] façade has a "characterful asymmetry":[2] it consists of five bays of unequal width and height.

From left (west) to right, there is a narrow bay with a "domestic character", topped by a small gable and with a pair of small arched windows; a short tower with a louvres and a recessed spire; the main entrance bay, with a wide gable and windows set in a large semicircular arched recess; a short turret with a polygonal stone upper stage; and a low gabled section with similar fenestration to the westernmost bay.

[17] The counties of East and West Sussex are the denomination's hotbed:[18] other Connexion chapels in Sussex are at Bells Yew Green, Bolney, Copthorne, Hailsham, Shoreham-by-Sea, Turners Hill and Wivelsfield (Ote Hall Chapel).