One of the UK's largest surviving tin churches continues in regular use by the garrison and community at Deepcut

Recently renovated, Wesleyan church built in Adelade SA and shipped to Darwin 1897. Note the external cladding is a purpose-made galv. iron pattern.

Interior of old Wesleyan church Darwin NT Australia

"Tin tabernacle" is the common name for church and related buildings made of corrugated iron, formerly built in Great Britain and elsewhere. Sometimes known also as "iron churches", many designs were available in kit form, and could be highly decorated.

These buildings were often established as mission halls or temporary shelter for new congregations. Very often, if a congregation prospered and was able to build an edifice of brick, stone, or some other material, the tin tabernacle would be destroyed, removed, or converted to some other purpose. Rusting makes the maintenance of tin tabernacles difficult.

Relatively few tin tabernacles survive as places of worship today, and some that do have been made listed buildings. One of the biggest surviving iron churches is the Bulgarian St Stephen Church in Istanbul, Turkey.

See also

The following churches in Liverpool, England, incorporate cast iron into their structure and decoration and are each known as The Iron Church.

• St George's Church, Everton
• St Michael's Church, Aigburth

External links

• Photographic Library of Tin Tabernacles & other corrugated iron buildings in the UK
• Tin Tabernacles
• Tin Tabernacles Churches, Chapels & Mission Halls in Britain book promotion website with current historical photographs
• BBC Radio 4 programme on Tin Tabernacles
• "Unholy row over tin tabernacle" BBC News, 27 October 2001
• Unitarian Chapel, Bedfield, Suffolk. In use, 1895 construction
• Short story of 3 Iron Churches

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