Desborough: Another tin tabernacle

I'm like look at this picture and you're like whatever.

But wait. The hole to take those large doors was punched in the side of this building long ago becase this used to be Desborough fire station.

If you look at this shot though...

...you will see a porch and eccesiastical windows. Could it be?

Sneak out of the back door of the neighbouring building that houses a greengrocer and the town council and you will be sure.

Yes, I found another tin tabernacle today.

Desborough is in a bad way. To the casual visitor it hardly seems to have a town centre, but the nearest thing it has to one is Station Street where every major building seems to be empty and boarded up. The tin tabernacle is in neighbouring Havelock Street.

What little is known of its history can be found in an assessment by Northamptonshire Archaeology, drawn up in connection with a proposed redevelopment of the area:

It is not known when the Desborough building was erected, or by which denomination, though it was not present in 1880, but was built by 1900. It may not have been built for a religious purpose, at the time many such buildings were erected for use as halls, meeting rooms and Temperance Clubs. There remain brick built Temperance Rooms and Café across the road, and Temperance Halls were often started in temporary buildings, so it could have been linked with that movement, though at present no evidence has been found to prove this.

If you have taken a shine to this building you may be able to buy it. The draft development brief for the centre of Desborough says:

The recent archaeological survey of this building and others in Desborough, has concluded that while it has little visual impact in the Conservation Area, it is a significant part of the town’s heritage, and given it’s prefabricated nature could be re‐located.

If the demolition of this building is proposed as part of any re‐development, guidance in PPG15 will need to be followed and the Local Planning Authoritywill consider the case on its merits. If the case for demolition is considered favourably, the council will require a survey of local records and recollections (oral history) of the building to be commissioned. Any organisation or individual prepared to relocate the building from the site will need to be given assistance and allowed to take the building (without the asbestos roof) at no additional cost other than their removal costs. The costs of removing the asbestos roofing material, which is believed to lie on top of the original corrugated iron roof, will remain with the developer of the site.