Metropolitan Tabernacle

The Metropolitan Tabernacle is a Baptist church with offices located behind it, built between 1859 and 1861, with a facade added in 1898 and extensively rebuilt around 1959. The church was designed by W.W. Pocock, while the facade was created by Searle and Hayes for Charles H. Spurgeon, a well-known preacher.

The building is constructed from coursed ragstone with ashlar dressings, featuring banded rustication on the ground floor and a blocking course on either side of the portico. It stands two storeys tall and has eleven bays. The prominent giant hexastyle Corinthian portico includes a pediment and a coffered ceiling, raised on a rusticated stone plinth. An entablature with a dentil and modillioned cornice runs across the outer sections, and the frieze at the front of the portico is inscribed with the name of the building. There are three central doors, and the ground floor features round-headed windows set in round-arched recesses with voussoirs and radial glazing at the heads. The outer bays include through ways. On the first floor, windows have moulded architraves with glazing bars, with the five central ones being round-headed and blind, adorned with swags in panels beneath bracketed sills.

The facade is listed due to its historical significance, having been reconstructed by Searle and Hayes after a fire in 1898, while the original church designed by W.W. Pocock from 1859 to 1861 only retains the portico. The modern building behind the facade was rebuilt around 1959 following damage from the war.