What is a mosque?

Buildings that are reserved for Islamic worship are called Mosques, or Masjids. Any place where Muslims gather for prayer is a mosque, it doesn't have to be a special building.

Mosques in Britain

Mosques in Britain range from the splendour of Regents Park Mosque, and the big central mosques in Birmingham and Manchester, to more modest structures, often converted from other buildings.

The first mosque in Britain is likely to have been one recorded in 1860 in Cardiff. Another early British mosque was established in 1887 in Mount Vernon Street in Liverpool, and moved to Brougham Terrace in 1889, where the building, which is now a Registry Office, continued to be used as a mosque until 1908.

Britain's first purpose-built mosque was built at Woking in Surrey in 1894 with money from the ruler of Bhopal, Shah Jehan.

In 1940 the British Government allocated a sum of up to £100,000 to buy a site for a mosque in London.

The idea for this first came in 1916 when Lord Headley, a convert to Islam, had suggested to Austen Chamberlain that the state should pay for a mosque in London "in memory of Muslim soldiers who died fighting for the Empire".

In 1944 the Islamic Centre was opened in London on 2.3 acres of land at Hanover Gate in Regent's Park given by King George VI to the UK Muslim Community. The gift was partly intended as a tribute to the thousands of Indian Muslim soldiers who had died defending the then British Empire.

In 1977 the Central Mosque, usually referred to as the Regent's Park Mosque, was opened on the same site. A new Educational and Administrative Wing was completed in 1994.

The successful design came from an English architect, Sir Frederick Gibberd (who also built Liverpool's Roman Catholic Cathedral), and cost £6.5 million to build, much of which was donated by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.