The History of the Metropolitan Tabernacle |
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The congregation that meets today in the Metropolitan Tabernacle have their roots in the early days of the Baptist church. In 1650 Parliament had banned independent Christian groups from meeting together. |
| However, a fast-growing group of Baptists began meeting in a home in Kennington. This group built their first chapel in 1688 when State persecution ended. | |
Their early leaders were great preachers and teachers, but none were more famous than Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who became their Pastor in 1854, when he was just 20 years old. Spurgeon quickly became the most popular British preacher of his day, and the Metropolitan Tabernacle was built to hold the 6,000 people that came each week. At the time, this was the largest Baptist church in the world. |
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Statue of Spurgeon |
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Charles Spurgeon was Pastor at the Metropolitan Tabernacle for 38 years. He also founded a college for Pastors and an orphanage, wrote many Christian books that are still popular today, and started over 200 new Baptist congregations. |
Spurgeon preaching in the Tabernacle, an engraving from 1890, based on an early photograph. Photograph courtesy of the Metropolitan Tabernacle |
| Only the grand front of the original Tabernacle survived the blitz. The rest was rebuilt in 1957 to a new design. |  |
In this picture you can see where the new building joins onto the original portico. |
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Go to 'History - Victorians - Preachers and Evangelists' |
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Go back to 'The Metropolitan Tabernacle' |