‘Missed’ mosques to be given listed status
MOSQUES in the UK have been ignored in heritage efforts, Historic England has said as it announces new listings.
The heritage group said the Government would add two London buildings to the protected lists and upgrade the status of two others on its advice, amid concerns that non-christian religious buildings had not received enough attention.
The newly listed buildings include the London Central Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre in Regent’s Park, which was built in the Seventies by Sir Frederick Gibberd, the British architect, on land offered by the government led by Winston Churchill in the Forties.
It will be given the Grade II* listing. The Fazl Mosque, Southfields, which was the second purpose-built mosque in Britain, will be listed at Grade II level by the department for culture, media and sport.
Linda Monckton, head of communities research at Historic England, told The Daily Telegraph that “the mainstream narratives of architecture and architectural history haven’t taken into account the contribution of mosques and temples, largely because nobody knows what’s there and where it is, so it’s kind of been invisible.
“I do think there have been buildings that have been missed, because we didn’t know where they were or what they were, because there was no survey, and no analysis, and no evidence.”
She said they had made a “really decisive shift” away from focusing solely on churches.