Although evidence of Neolithic settlement has been found in the area now occupied by the city,[2] Brighton started to develop as a fishing village in the 12th century.

[5] In its early years, the chapel was used exclusively by Presbyterians; but its first permanent minister—Reverend John Duke, who was in charge between 1698 and 1745—allowed Independent Christian ministers to hold services there as well.

[14] In around 1800, a house was constructed next to the chapel for the incumbent minister to live in, and burials began to be made in the former yard area behind the building.

About ten years later, the chapel was extended; the east wall, built of cobbled stones and flints with red-brick dressings in a style found frequently in Sussex, may date from that redevelopment,[14] although other sources state it may have been part of the original 17th-century structure.

[6][11] Brighton grew rapidly, from its original fishing village status to a fashionable town and seaside resort, from the second half of the 18th century, helped by royal patronage, local doctor Richard Russell's advocacy of sea-bathing and seawater-drinking as a cure for various ailments, and improved transport connections to London and other places.

[9][15] By the early 19th century, demand for new buildings—especially in the fashionable Regency style—was very high, and a group of three builders and architects, who worked together and separately at different times, became the most significant contributors to Brighton's building stock of the period.

He was converted to Evangelical Christianity while staying in Brighton after suddenly losing his sight, and devoted the rest of his life to improving the working and spiritual lives of miners in Britain and elsewhere.

[23] In September 1988, the Elim congregation left the building and it was put up for sale again, with the expectation that it would become a restaurant or pub—ending 300 years of religious worship on the site.

[6] The tall, wide, stuccoed façade, facing south, is in the Greek Revival style, with Doric pilasters, a triglyph and a large pediment—in keeping with many of the Wilds–Busby partnership's Regency era buildings in Brighton; but the two doorways and three windows are tapered from bottom to top, a feature associated with Egyptian Revival architecture.

[1] The east wall, facing Meeting House Lane, pre-dates the 1825 work on the main façade; it consists of cobbled stonework and flints in a regular pattern, with red-brick dressings at the corners and around the arch-headed sash windows on the ground floor and the larger rectangular first-floor sash windows.

The gallery was held up by a series of cast iron columns with decorative capitals,[14] and was the only 19th-century feature to survive during the Elim congregation's occupancy.

[10][20] After the Elim congregation vacated the building, it was converted into a large pub, the Font & Firkin—part of the former Firkin Brewery chain.