All Saints Church, Hove

All Saints Church, Hove
The church from the southwest
50°49′49″N 0°10′03″W / 50.8303°N 0.1674°W / 50.8303; -0.1674Coordinates: 50°49′49″N 0°10′03″W / 50.8303°N 0.1674°W / 50.8303; -0.1674
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	High Church
Website	www.allsaintshove.org
History
Dedication	All Saints
Administration
Parish	Hove, All Saints
Deanery	Rural Deanery of Hove
Archdeaconry	Chichester
Diocese	Chichester
Province	Canterbury
Clergy
Priest(s)	Position Vacant (Vicar of Hove)

All Saints Church is an Anglican church in Hove, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. It has served as the parish church for the whole of Hove since 1892, and stands in a prominent location at a major crossroads in central Hove.

The present parishes of Hove and Preston had been united as a single benefice, Hove-cum-Preston, since 1531.St Andrew's Church, of Saxon origin but rebuilt from a near-derelict state in 1836 in response to the area's growing population, had served as Hove-cum-Preston's parish church. When the parish was separated into two new areas serving Hove and Preston respectively in 1879, St Andrew's status was changed to that of parish church of Hove. However, when Revd Thomas Peacey was appointed the first vicar of Hove in the same year, he immediately showed his intention of replacing it with a new, more impressive church by selecting the prominent ecclesiastical architect John Loughborough Pearson to submit a design.

Construction did not begin until 1889, with the first stone being laid on 25 April 1889; during the 1880s, Pearson had been working on various projects, including the vicarage (on the same plot of land) and the nearby St Barnabas Church. The church was built, opened and consecrated in stages: the nave and side aisles, forming the core of the present building and costing £14,000, were opened in 1891 after a consecration ceremony by the Bishop of Chichester (Richard Durnford, who personally gave £1,000 towards the cost of the church) on 1 May 1891; the eastern end was not finished until 1901, four years after Pearson's death—its completion was overseen by his son, and the new Bishop of Chichester, Ernest Roland Wilberforce consecrated it on 1 November 1901; and an incomplete tower on the southwestern side, and an adjacent narthex, were provided in 1924. The tower has never been finished, although its interior does feature a statue of Revd Peacey holding a model of the church. By this time, £40,000 had been spent on construction.