East London Mosque

The East London Mosque stands in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets between Whitechapel and Aldgate East. It is one of the largest mosques in Western Europe, with space for more than 7,000 worshippers. The mosque shares its site with the London Muslim Centre and the Maryam Centre. Together they form a single complex of three linked buildings. The original mosque was built in 1985 on land left empty after wartime bombing. Its brick exterior uses two shades of brick and a golden dome eight and a half metres wide. The mosque’s history goes back to 1910 and the London Mosque Fund. Syed Ameer Ali, the first Indian Privy Counsellor, chaired the fund until 1928. Trustees included Aga Khan III, translators Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall, and financier Nathan Rothschild. The fund aimed to provide a permanent place of worship for London’s Muslims. In 1940 three houses in Commercial Road became the first East London Mosque. By the 1990s the growing congregation needed more space, so the mosque bought the neighbouring bomb-damaged land. Today visitors find a three-storey mosque with two large halls, a gallery, classrooms and offices. The adjoining London Muslim Centre has two multipurpose halls, a nursery, fitness centre and a small Islamic library. The nine-storey Maryam Centre adds a new main prayer hall, funeral services and women’s facilities over five floors. The complex fronts Whitechapel Road and backs onto Fieldgate Street. Its minaret rises nearly twenty-nine metres above ground, and the entrance is marked by two smaller minaret copies.