The church was part of the Wesleyan Methodist tradition, and during the early 20th century became part of a circuit of six local Wesleyan churches; the others were the nearby Dorset Gardens Methodist Church (also in Kemptown), Hove Methodist Church, and others in Hurstpierpoint, Portslade and Southwick.
Lord Monk Bretton married Caroline-Florence, second daughter of William John Campion of Danny, Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, by Harriet Kemp (daughter of Thomas Read Kemp) in 1856.
Li was educated at Hurstpierpoint College, an independent school near the village of Hurstpierpoint in West Sussex, before attending the University of Bath in the city of Bath in the UK, where he studied Engineering, and at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York City.
He built up a collection of some 50,000 specimens of bryophytes (mosses, lichens and liverworts) at his home in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex.
Sean Howson (born 1 January 1981) is a footballer, currently playing for Sussex County League Division Three side Hurstpierpoint, where he plays as a striker.