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The Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking

colour photograph, a white mosque building with mosaic panels and green domes

The United Kingdom's first purpose-built place of Islamic worship

by
Adrian Murphy (opens in new window) (Europeana Foundation)

Woking - a town in England 50 kilometres southwest of London - is home to what is believed to be the United Kingdom's first purpose-built mosque.

The Shah Jahan Mosque was commissioned in 1889 by Dr Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner.

black and white drawing illustration of a mosque building

Leitner, who had been born in Budapest to a Jewish family, established a centre in Woking in 1881 (then known as the Oriental Institute) for the study of Middle Eastern and Asian languages, culture and history. Leitner later commissioned the mosque for the benefit of Muslim students studying there.

black and white portrait illustration of Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner

The mosque was the first formal place of Islamic worship in England. It was designed by architect William Isaac Chambers in a Persian-Saracenic Revival style. It features a dome, minarets and a courtyard.

Leitner died in 1899. The mosque was not used between then and 1913. Its fortunes were revived by the Woking Mosque Trust who took over the running of the place of worship.

black and white photograph of the Shah Jahan mosque building

Its from this period that many photographs on Europeana show the life and activities of the mosque. British photojournalists in the 1910s capture events, festivities and worship at the mosque.

In October 1916, worshippers and guests gathered at the mosque to celebrate Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, while in 1917, people are seen marking Eid al-Fitr at the end of Ramadhan. These photographs were made by the Alfieri Picture Service.

black and white photograph, a group of people sit and stand around a long table
black and white photograph, three women standing in a garden with other people in the background
black and white photograph of a group of people sitting at a long table
black and white photograph, people kneeling at a fountain in a mosque
black and white photograph, a man preaching to a large group of people

Two decades later, in March 1936, a photographer from Planet News took this image of the festival of Eid al-Adha being celebrated at the mosque.

black and white photogrpah, a group of kneeling people in a mosque

For several decades, until the arrival of Pakistani immigrants to the UK in the 1960s, the Mosque was the centre of Islam in Britain.

colour photograph of a white mosque building with a mosaic panel and green domes

Although the mosque has been renovated several times, it continues to be a symbol of Islamic community in Britain.

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