His Place's home is the former Robertson Street United Reform Church which was built in 1885 by the well-known Hastings architect Henry Ward. This fine Grade-II listed building has a large, horse-shoe galleried worship space that seats up to 700 people. With its elegant wooden coffered ceiling and abundant Renaissance-style plaster decoration, it is a strikingly beautiful venue with a superb acoustic for music. We have named it the Henry Ward Hall in honour of its designer.

Unhappily, the building's age and the weather have landed us with a hefty repair bill. The sea winds have taken a heavy toll on the church's masonry, with severe erosion that has destroyed much of the original carved stone decoration and left some of the leaded windows flapping in the wind. Also, some makeshift repairs have reached the end of their life, including the concrete tile roof that was installed in the 1980s. We need to return the roof slopes to their original slate and also need to renew and enlarge all of the rainwater goods.

Once we have completed the exterior works, we will begin refurbishing the interior. The inadequate rainwater goods have caused a lot of water damage, including the loss of some of the beautiful floral plaster decoration; we hope to reinstate this using moulds from the company that did the original work, George Jackson and Sons. The 1885 Forster & Andrews pipe organ also requires a lot of work to bring it back to its best state. We are also looking to upgrade our foyer at the rear of the auditorium, removing the ugly false ceiling and unsympathetic floor coverings.

Obviously, this is a long term project! But we are making good progress. Our architects at Thomas Ford & Partners have planned four phases of exterior and internal repair, costing in the region of £1 to £1.5 million. In 2022, thanks to the generous support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and other trusts, we embarked on the first phase of works the urgent repair of the crumbling stone work and decaying windows on our east and south elevations. We are thrilled at being able to unveil our new revitalised Robertson Street entrance in 2023.

We will keep working hard to raise the funds to restore the church and its pipe organ to their original glory. We welcome visitors to view the church and are always happy to hear from past worshippers and their families. We also welcome people who would like to donate time or money to our restoration project. If this beautiful church building means something to you or if you would like to aid its repair and renewal, please consider making a donation to our repair fund. All donations made to this campaign are reserved for repair and refurbishment works.