Britain’s first mosque? In 1889, a Victorian solicitor opened one in a terraced house in Liverpool.
This is the Abdullah Quilliam Mosque, on Brougham Terrace. It is often called the first mosque in Britain, though that is debated.
William Henry Quilliam was a solicitor. He became Muslim in 1887 and took the name Abdullah. His first convert was Elizabeth Cates, and they began meeting in a hall on Mount Vernon Street.
In 1889, he bought number 8 Brougham Terrace and built an extension at the back to serve as a mosque. It was part of the Liverpool Muslim Institute.
By around 1900, the community reportedly numbered about 150 people, mostly English.
The Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid the Second gave Quilliam the title Sheikh ul-Islam of Britain.
The mosque closed in 1908, when Quilliam left Liverpool. Later the building became a register office, and then stood empty after 2000.
The Quilliam Society restored it, and the mosque reopened in 2014.
In 2018, the building was upgraded to Grade 2 star listed.
