St Laurence's Church, Cambridge
The Church of St Laurence is a Roman Catholic church in Cambridge, England. Dedicated to St Laurence of Rome, it is part of the Diocese of East Anglia, within the Province of Westminster. The parish is part of St Andrew's Deanery and is one of three parishes serving the city of Cambridge, the other two being Our Lady and the English Martyrs and St Philip Howard.
St Laurence's Church, Cambridge
The interior of the church showing the altar and sanctuary area with statues and tapestry
A tin tabernacle, also known as an iron church, is a type of prefabricated ecclesiastical building made from corrugated galvanised iron. They were developed in the mid-19th century initially in the United Kingdom. Corrugated iron was first used for roofing in London in 1829 by civil engineer Henry Robinson Palmer, and the patent was later sold to Richard Walker who advertised "portable buildings for export" in 1832. The technology for producing the corrugated sheets improved, and to prevent corrosion, the sheets were galvanised with a coating of zinc, a process developed by Stanislas Sorel in Paris in the 1830s. After 1850, many types of prefabricated buildings were produced, including churches, chapels and mission halls.
St Mary's Church at Cadgwith in Cornwall, a blue-painted "tin church".
A floating iron church in the Scottish Highlands (1840s)
Image: St John's Church geograph.org.uk 98579
Image: Tin tabernacle at Alhampton, Ditcheat, Somerset