The building is recorded in a report by Cgms Consulting in advance of propsed development at the site, which now forms part of the wider Dairy Crest depot. The reports states: "The building in question was originally built as a non-parochial missionary. These buildings were often established in slum areas to provide a place of worship, education and meeting places to hold non-liturgical activities for the local community. Unusually, in this case, the building was run as an interdenominational body, not tied to or looking to compete with other churches, but welcoming all and working towards similar Evangelistic ideology…
The origins of the building can be attributed to an earlier mission hall..established by Captain John Elliot Bingham on nearby John Street (to the south of the site). In 1872 close to a slum area of Tunbridge Wells called 'The Lew'.
After Bingham's death in c 1877 his widow continued his work…a well-known and travelled preacher (John Maloney McAuliffe) arrived and settled in Tunbridge Wells in 1888. With the support of Mrs Bingham, McAuliffe was able to continue his work as an evangelist and missionary preacher. Under his leadership the congregation and missionary work at the John Street Mission Hall expanded to the extent that the building required enlarging on several occasions, including the provision of an extension in 1892 built by Messrs Soper and Jones.
In the early 1890s, the organisation decided to build a new hall on St John's Road suitable for their missionary work and services. Mrs Bingham sold them a piece of land on St John St for a nominal fee. The result was the erection of a new hall which remains present today, albeit in a radically altered form and poorly preserved condition…There is no indication over the architect for this new building but it was built by Messrs Soper and Jones, a local firm located on St John's Road. .. Work on the new hall was completed in 1894 but the building did not open until March 1895 [described as] 'an imposing building of red brick, bath stone and plaster. In the interior, a row of pews face the rostrum in the centre and chairs are placed at the side. Further alterations, completed soon after this, are known to have included fitting electrical lighting in 1898.
[There were branch halls at the old John Street premises and a building within High Brooms]. The work of the missionary continued to flourish but due in part to ill-health of McAuliffe efforts to secure the long term future of the building were sought.
Re-use and alteration - Although McAuliffe continued his work at the old hall on John Street until his death in 1910, by 1907 the new hall was transferred at a nominal fee to the Wesleyan Methodist Church…the building was still in use as a Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1924 with no sign of the present site configuration or additional two storey flanking wings which are visible to the north and south sides of the hall today. This confirms that these wings (certainly at least the second storey of them) were later additions.
Renamed St John's Road Wesleyan Church in 1907 the hall continued its work in the vein of McAuliffe efforts until its closure in 1934…the Courier newspaper reported in March 1934 that the building was for sale and in 1936 suggested that it had been sold but was still vacant with initial plans to convert it into a repetory theatre. However, the actual use of the building during the best part of the 1930s is unknown…By January 1939 the courier reported that John Brown's Dairies 'spacious depot' on St John Street was nearing completion and it is assumed that this included the conversion of the former mission hall…The dairy and depot later became the company's head office although gain the specific use of the former Mission Hall is unknown at the time.
Sutton suggests that the founder of John Brown's Dairies, John Brown sold his stake in the firm in 1898 but the firm retained the trade name John Brown's Dairies until the early 1960s when it became known as Home County Dairies and then Dairy Crest.
The available historic planning history for the Site is limited, but highlights the late 20th century evolution of the building as part of the wider dairy site. Applications were approved in 1997 for the removal of a canopy, a loading dock and windows. In addition, a later scheme also included further window replacements to the front (eastern elevation) in 1999. This directly correlates to the appreciable alterations and evolution of the façade present today.
Extensive image and other archive database searches have not located any historical images of the Mission Hall's eastern elevation. Howver, as previously noted, the hall's western elevation and roof is visible albeit in little detail, on an aerial photograph of Skinners' School in 1924".
The Mission Hall replaced a terrace of six terrace houses. (1)

<1> CgMs Consulting, 2016, Building Record (East Elevation), Former Mission Hall, 87a and 87b St John's Road, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN4 9TU (Unpublished document). SKE31628.