Established as a public house in the late 20th century, it occupies two early 19th-century listed buildings in the oldest part of the town: a Greek Revival-style former wine merchants premises,[1] and a Neoclassical chapel built for Wesleyan Methodists in 1839.

[3][4] The Roberts family entered the wine trade five years after Worthing was granted the status of a town in 1803—a development which encouraged rapid residential and commercial growth.

This was called the Vintners Arms, but it was usually known as the Thieves Kitchen locally—a humorous reference to its popularity with local tradesmen.

[3] The building presents its main façade to Warwick Street, but it also wraps around the street corner to form the top of Bedford Row,[3] one of Worthing's oldest speculative residential developments: a terrace of bow-fronted houses built in 1803 opposite a formal lawn (since built upon).

Three sash windows on the first floor of the Bedford Row façade have iron balconies with anthemion ornamentation.

[3] Most are multi-pane windows with muntins (glazing bars), and those on the first floor have flat hood moulds.

In 1820, the Brighton Circuit of Wesleyan Methodists extended its reach to Worthing: meetings were held in a private house.

The flint building, named Providence Chapel, was used for the next 17 years; but in 1839 Charles Hide was commissioned to design a new place of worship nearby.