Godalming is an ancient town with mainly industrial origins, which were conducive to the spread of Nonconformism. Attendances at
conventicles exceeded those at the parish church,
St Peter and St Paul's, where the Anglo-Catholic views of the priest in the late 17th century did not represent the majority of inhabitants, who were "overwhelmingly
Puritan in belief and practice". Numerous informal Nonconformist groups developed in and around Godalming at this time. One such group was Congregationalists, which had a sufficient following by 1730 they acquired land on Hart's Lane and built a chapel. The congregation "may be considered ... the lineal representative of the conventicle of the reign of
Charles II", which had 700–800 worshippers every Sunday at a time when Godalming's population was 3,000. The land for the chapel was bought for £20 in January 1729, and construction soon followed. Ebenezer Chapel, as it was called, The building was extended at the rear in 1821 as the congregation grew, at a cost of £634. By January 1867, though, the congregation had expanded so much that a new chapel was needed, and the trustees decided to sell the Mint Street building. Land at Bridge Street was found and purchased and the new Congregational chapel was quickly built, opening on 28 October 1868. The former chapel was then bought by a group of
Wesleyan Methodists for £450, and they converted it into Godalming's first permanent Methodist chapel. (A Methodist group had existed for some years until 1797, and meetings recommenced in 1826 in a hired room; a small chapel was also built at
Farncombe, the neighbouring village, in 1840.) As Godalming Wesleyan Chapel it opened in 1869, and the congregation grew steadily. It was in turn replaced by a new church—the
Hugh Price Hughes Memorial Chapel (now
Godalming United Church)—on Bridge Street, almost opposite the Congregational chapel, in 1903. but further alterations were made by 1994. A
planning application to convert the disused hall into an office was submitted in May 2013 and approved by Waverley Borough Council two months later. While it was still in use by the Salvation Army, the building was
listed at Grade II on 21 August 1990. As of February 2001, it was one of 1,548 Grade II listed buildings and 1,661 listed buildings of all grades in the
Borough of Waverley, the local government district in which Godalming is situated. It was also licensed for worship in accordance with the
Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 and had the registration number 39828. It is one of several current and former places of worship in Godalming with listed status: the
Quaker meeting house on Mill Street,
St Edmund's Roman Catholic Church,
Meadrow Unitarian Chapel and the
Congregational church on Bridge Street (which superseded the Mint Street building but which is no longer in religious use) are all Grade II-listed, and
St Peter and St Paul's parish church has Grade I status. ==Architecture==