The Metropolitan Tabernacle is a large independent Reformed Baptist church in the Elephant and Castle in London.

[2][3][4] The Tabernacle fellowship dates back to 1650, when the English Parliament banned independent Christian organisations from meeting together.

At this point, the group built their first chapel, in Horsleydown, Southwark, an area of London immediately south of the present-day Tower Bridge.

The location chosen was at Elephant and Castle, a prominent position near the River Thames in South London, partly because it was thought to be the site of the burning of the Southwark Martyrs.

[2] The original building was burned down in 1898, leaving just the front portico and basement intact, before the rebuilt church was destroyed again in 1941 during the German bombing of London in World War II.

[5] The war led to the Tabernacle fellowship being greatly diminished as few members of the old congregation were able to return to heavily blitzed central London.

[12] Numbers greatly increased and this gave rise to the full church and galleries of today, together with numerous professions of faith.