Mosques in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom is home to one of the largest Muslim communities in western Europe, with close to four million Muslims, around six percent of the population. British Islam has been shaped by more than a century of migration, from the Yemeni sailors of Cardiff and South Shields to the great postwar waves from South Asia, and today by more recent communities from the Arab world, Somalia, Turkey, the Balkans and West Africa. This page brings together the historical, geographical and practical landmarks to find your way among the British mosques listed on the map.

A community shaped by migration

Muslim life in Britain took organised shape in the late nineteenth century, with the founding of the Shah Jahan Mosque in Woking in 1889, the first purpose-built mosque in the country. Postwar labour migration from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and later East Africa built the backbone of British Muslim communities across the industrial towns of the north and the Midlands, while London drew people from every corner of the Muslim world. The younger generation of British Muslims is now overwhelmingly born in the country.

The main Muslim cities

London holds the densest Muslim urban fabric in the country, with hundreds of mosques from Whitechapel and Tower Hamlets in the east to Southall in the west, and the East London Mosque as one of the most active in Europe. Birmingham comes next, home to the Central Mosque and to large Kashmiri, Bangladeshi and Somali communities. Bradford, Manchester, Leicester, Leeds, Luton, Sheffield and Glasgow each hold their own networks. The Regent's Park Mosque in London, the Cambridge Central Mosque, the Baitul Futuh in Morden and the Manchester Central Mosque are among the country's most architecturally significant places of worship.

A community-run mosque network

British mosques are almost entirely funded and run by their own congregations, without state involvement. Umbrella bodies such as the Muslim Council of Britain and the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board provide guidance and represent the community before public authorities, but no central authority governs the mosques. That autonomy translates into a wide variety of traditions, from Deobandi and Barelvi mosques rooted in South Asian scholarship to Salafi, Sufi, Turkish, Arab, Bosnian and Somali communities, each with their own places of worship.

Practical guidance

British mosques follow the five daily prayers, with the largest gatherings on Friday around lunchtime and during Ramadan. A great many mosques welcome non-Muslim visitors outside prayer times, and events such as Visit My Mosque Day bring hundreds of mosques across the country open to the public for a weekend each year. Modest dress is expected: shoulders and legs covered, hair covered for women, shoes removed before entering the prayer hall.

How to use this directory

The interactive map above brings together the British mosques listed from OpenStreetMap data. Each marker locates a place and gives access to its details. Coverage is stronger in the main urban areas, and grows over time as the data is refined. City pages will strengthen this section in the months ahead, starting with London, Birmingham and Manchester.