Hidden Gems: Islamic Architecture in Britain

Think of British architecture and you picture Gothic cathedrals, Victorian red brick, glass skylines. Yet dotted amongst them — sometimes hiding in plain sight on an ordinary suburban street — are remarkable pieces of Islamic architecture that blend Eastern tradition with Western building craft.

Before touring the highlights, it helps to know what you're looking at — so let's start with the features that make a mosque a mosque.

Reading a Mosque: The Key Features Explained

The Minaret

The slender tower rising beside or above the mosque. Historically, the minaret was a practical structure: the muezzin would climb it to give the adhan (call to prayer) so it carried across the neighbourhood. In the UK the call is generally not broadcast outdoors, so minarets on British mosques are largely symbolic — a visual signpost saying "this is a mosque" on streets where the building might otherwise blend into the terrace.

The Dome

The dome does two jobs. Acoustically and spatially, it opens up a large, uninterrupted prayer hall — no forest of pillars blocking the rows of worshippers. Symbolically, its curve draws the eye (and the heart) upwards. Domes are a tradition rather than a requirement, which is why some of Britain's most celebrated modern mosques have quietly done without them.

The Mihrab

Inside the prayer hall, look for a niche or decorated recess in one wall. This is the mihrab, and it marks the qibla — the direction of the Kaaba in Makkah, which Muslims face in prayer. In Britain that direction is roughly towards the south-east, which has interesting consequences for architects, as we'll see below.

The Minbar

Beside the mihrab stands the minbar, a raised platform — often a short staircase with a seat at the top — from which the imam delivers the Friday khutbah (sermon). Elevation is purely practical: it lets a full hall see and hear the speaker.

Notice what's absent, too: no statues, no figurative images. Islamic sacred art expresses itself through geometry, calligraphy, and pattern — interlocking stars, arabesques, and Qur'anic verses rendered in flowing script.

Converted or Purpose-Built? A Very British Story

The story of the UK's mosques is written in two kinds of building.

Converted mosques came first in most towns. As Muslim communities settled and grew through the twentieth century, they did what any practical community does: they bought what was available — terraced houses, former churches and chapels, old cinemas, warehouses — and adapted the interiors for prayer. From the street, many of these mosques are nearly invisible; inside, carpets are aligned to the qibla, a mihrab is set into a wall, and wudu facilities are fitted where a kitchen or cloakroom once stood. Unglamorous, endlessly resourceful — and in many towns these conversions are still the busiest buildings on the street.

Purpose-built mosques followed as communities put down deeper roots and raised funds — buildings designed from the first sketch around the needs of Islamic worship: a hall oriented to the qibla, wudu areas, women's galleries, and often a dome or minaret announcing the building's purpose. The examples below are the finest of this tradition.

One quiet design challenge unites them all: British streets run in every direction, but prayer must face south-east. In converted buildings, the prayer rows simply sit diagonally within the old walls. In purpose-built mosques, architects often rotate the prayer hall within the site — so a mosque that looks square to the street may conceal a subtly angled heart.

1. Cambridge Central Mosque

Start here if you only visit one. Shortlisted for the 2021 RIBA Stirling Prize, this is arguably the most significant piece of modern Islamic architecture in Europe — and its centrepiece isn't a dome. Instead, timber columns branch out like trees to support the roof, a contemporary take on the interlacing patterns of classical Islamic design. Described as Europe's first eco-mosque, it was built around minimal energy use, with rainwater harvesting and air-source heat pumps. It won RIBA East Building of the Year in 2021.

What the photos don't convey: it feels like praying in a forest. Peaceful, organic, full of light. Its openness has also influenced conversations about mosque layouts across the country.

2. The Shah Jahan Mosque (Woking)

Built in 1889 and widely described as Britain's first purpose-built mosque, this is pure Orientalist revival: a turquoise onion dome, delicate minarets, and a courtyard that feels transported from nineteenth-century India — a Victorian architect's romanticised vision of the Mughal world. It's now Grade I listed — this small Surrey mosque sits in the same heritage category as Britain's great cathedrals.

3. The Ismaili Centre (South Kensington, London)

Easy to walk straight past, which is rather the point. Sitting opposite the V&A Museum, this Casson Conder Partnership design chooses materials sympathetic to the surrounding London architecture (light grey granite) while working Islamic geometry through every detail. Best of all is the roof garden in the charbagh (four-part garden) style, a pocket of calm in the middle of London.

4. London Central Mosque (Regent's Park)

If you've looked out over Regent's Park, you've seen the golden dome. Built in the 1970s to a design by Sir Frederick Gibberd, it renders the great dome and minaret in the crisp concrete-and-glass language of its era. For decades this was the public face of Islam in the UK, hosting dignitaries and worshippers from every corner of the world, and its main hall still overflows onto the surrounding spaces at Eid.

5. Glasgow Central Mosque

This one is built from the same red sandstone that defines Glasgow's own architecture, so it blends in while standing out — a large glass dome and minaret beside the Clyde. Local stone, Islamic form: the Muslim community written into the fabric of the city, literally.

How Islamic Architecture Adapted to Britain

Look across these buildings and a pattern emerges: British mosque architecture has consistently adapted rather than transplanted. Glasgow's sandstone, London stock brick, English timber — mosques keep choosing the palette of their host city. Climate forces its own translations, too. Courtyards designed for desert heat become glazed atriums, and grand open arcades become insulated halls with proper heating for a January Fajr.

The best designs also converse with their surroundings instead of shouting over them — the Ismaili Centre's deference to South Kensington, Cambridge's echo of college gardens and fenland timber. And they work hard. British mosques are rarely just prayer halls; classrooms, community kitchens, libraries, and sports halls are folded into the plan, because the mosque here is an all-week community hub.

Practical Tips for Visiting

• Check each mosque's website for visitor information; several of the buildings above welcome tourists and run guided tours or open days.
• Visit outside the five daily prayer times if you want to admire the architecture at leisure — or during them if you'd like to see the building doing its real job.
• Dress modestly, remove your shoes at the prayer-hall entrance, and ask before photographing people (the buildings themselves are usually fair game — ask first inside).
• Look up: domes, muqarnas, and calligraphy reward a craned neck.
• Pair a visit with the neighbourhood: the V&A sits opposite the Ismaili Centre, and Regent's Park makes a perfect walk before the Central Mosque.

Worth the Detour

A Victorian dome in Surrey, a timber forest in Cambridge, red sandstone beside the Clyde — each of these buildings tells the same story in a different accent: faith, settled and at home in Britain. They're open, they're proud of what they've built, and most will happily show you around. Go and see one.