London Life Archive

"A Voyage around the Tin Tabernacle in a 10 minute film. Outside it's an old Victorian tin tabernacle (church). Inside it's a ship (the HMS Bicester) and home of the Willesden and Marylebone Sea Cadets. The film explores this unusual building and we meet some of the people working hard to save it: Lieutenant Commander David Locke has been involved with the Sea Cadets most of his life: as a child he was a cadet and in the 1990s he ran the Willesden and Marylebone Group. He explains the building's importance, shows us the centrepiece Bofurs Gun and takes us onto the deck of the HMS Bicester. Mary East is one of a committed group of local people raising funds to restore the building. They want to  renovate it so it can be used as a performance space for concerts and theatre and for the Sea Cadets.  Her favourite space is the Chapel, a memento mori to people who died in World War 2. She also has plans to restore the garden. Graeme Cawsey and Laura  are two of the leaders who take the Sea Cadets boating on the Welsh Harp during the summer months. Chris and Delisia Price are performers who take part in fundraising concerts for the Tin Tabernacle. Other musicians include Mary's daughter, Flora. The film interweaves interviews with footage of the Sea Cadets boating at the Welsh Harp and preparations for a fundraising concert."