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Spitalfields, London · United Kingdom

Brick Lane Mosque

Brick Lane Mosque, London, United Kingdom
Photo: Doyle of London · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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The story in short

This building in East London has been a church, a synagogue and a mosque.

This is the Brick Lane Mosque, also called the London Jamme Masjid, in Spitalfields.

It was built in 1743 as a chapel for the Huguenots, French Protestant refugees. They called it La Neuve Eglise, the New Church.

Later it passed to other Christian groups, including Methodists, from 1819.

In the 1890s, the building was taken over by the Machzike Hadath, an Orthodox Jewish congregation, and became a synagogue.

By the 1970s, the synagogue had fallen out of use. In 1976, the building was bought with donations from the Sylheti community, who had come from Bangladesh, and it became a mosque. Sources differ on the opening year.

On the south side, the old sundial still carries the date 1743 and a Latin motto from the poet Horace: Umbra Sumus. We are shadows.

The mosque holds about three thousand two hundred worshippers. Sermons are given in English, Arabic and Bengali.

At a glance

Place
Spitalfields, London, England
Built
Built 1743 as a Huguenot chapel; a mosque since 1976 (sources differ on the opening year)
Coordinates
51.5193°N, 0.0722°W
Video
Watch on YouTube

Background

Brick Lane Mosque or Brick Lane Jamme Masjid, formerly known as the London Jamme Masjid, is a Muslim place of worship in Central London and is in the East End of London which serves the British Bangladeshi community.

Summary from the Wikipedia article “Brick Lane Mosque”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full article.

More photos

Brick Lane Mosque, London, United Kingdom (photo 2)
Photo: Bobulous · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Brick Lane Mosque, London, United Kingdom (photo 3)
Photo: Garry Knight from London, England · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Brick Lane Mosque, London, United Kingdom (photo 4)
Photo: Doyle of London · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Brick Lane Mosque, London, United Kingdom (photo 5)
Photo: Keith Page · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The article is a short summary based on published sources; where accounts differ, the text says so. Photos come from Wikimedia Commons and are shown under their free licences, with the author credited under each image. If you are an author and want a credit changed or a photo removed, please write to [email protected].