3-086-162 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Spurgeon's Tabernacle, destroyed by fire, 1898. 'The destruction by fire of the Metropolitan Tabernacle at Newington Butts [in south London], famous for thirty years as the centre of the late Mr. Charles Haddon Spurgeon's ministry, has removed what was undoubtedly a landmark in the spiritual life of many thousands of that great preacher's followers. Shortly after noon on April 20 a fire was found to have broken out within the building...and though some dozen fire-engines were quickly on the spot...the flames had so rapidly enveloped the structure that within half an hour of the alarm the roof fell in, and in less than another two hours only the outer shell of the great building remained. The records and deeds of the chapel, together with its communion plate and a few other valuables, were rescued from the vestry, but all else associated with the famous preacher's long pastorate within the great building generally known by his name was reduced to a mere heap of charred débris...For the thousands to whom the news of the disaster has brought keen regret, no new Tabernacle can quite replace the building now destroyed. The usual services of the Tabernacle were held on Sunday last at Exeter Hall'. From "Illustrated London News", 1898.