As with many Unitarian churches, chapels and meeting houses across the UK, John Pounds Memorial Church in Portsmouth has evolved from previous independent places of meeting for worship over the years.

Here in Portsmouth there was an English Presbyterian place of meeting which evolved from a Church of England clergyman being ejected from his living when required to conform to the use of the Book of Common Prayer of 1662 - those clergy of the Church of England, after the Act of Uniformity was passed by parliament and who refused to conform in this way were then deprived of their livings as vicars and rectors of their parish churches. One such was Benjamin Burgess who was vicar of St. Thomas's Portsmouth (now Portsmouth's Anglican Cathedral.) He is buried in the Cathedral behind the present freestanding high altar at the liturgical east end of the building. Seemingly. they wanted him back!

He and many of his congregation then set up an illegal conventicle so that they were free to worship in their own way and such was the growth in their numbers that eventually a much bigger place of meeting was needed and so the High Street Chapel was built in the early 18th. Century - 1718 - a fine galleried chapel and which had its own burial ground - the latter being important to those who became known as non-conformists.

Over the 18th and 19th centuries, like so many Presbyterian places of meeting in England (though not in Scotland, Wales or Ireland), the High Street Chapel became increasingly unitarian in its belief and teaching and practice, eventually being known as the Unitarian Church in Portsmouth.

Sadly, in 1941, the High Street Chapel of 1718 was bombed and gutted as were so many buildings, including many churches, in this important naval city.

Ten years after World War II, a small but enthusiastic group of people, encouraged by John Sturges - later a much loved minister here - was determined to build an entirely new building on the site of the old chapel and so John Pounds Memorial Church was built - its name and dedication being after the little cobbler of Portsmouth who had seen a need for more than cobbling shoes and who began what has become known as the ragged schools' movement. - See John Pounds Trust and the John Pounds Heritage appeal parts of this website. (Soon to be implemented)

He is our patron and one, severely crippled in his mid-teens, who grew out of obscurity in a rough area of Portsmouth during the 18th and 19th. centuries - because he saw a great need to help young children reared in what was, effectively in those days, a slum. Find out more

Unless you have friends or relatives that have been members of a Unitarian community you probably don't know what a Unitarian church actually is and what we stand for. Find out more

Click more (below) to find out out what time the services take place, who is preaching etc.. Times vary so check back regularly. more