THE FIRST MOSQUES IN BRITAIN
FIRST: CONVERTED HOUSE MOSQUE ABDULLAH QUILLIAM MOSQUE, LIVERPOOL (1889) The first mosque in Britain was established in a Georgian terrace house in Liverpool in 1889. Slight to the contrary, the Liverpool Muslim Institute Mosque was not founded by the Muslim migrant sailors of the late 19th century, but rather by a group of British reverts led by a distinguished local layer, Abdullah William Quilliam. Following his visits to Morocco, William Henry Quilliam along with his countrymen embraced Islam. Upon his return to Britain, Quilliam founded the Liverpool Muslim Institute Mosque. Very much like the majority of mosques in Britain at present, the Liverpool Muslim Institute Mosque was a conversion of an existing building rather than a purpose-built place of worship. As part of the conversion, a mihrab and a mimbar were added (fig11). The terrace conversion meant there was no capacity for any external application of an Islamic visual identity nor character. The internal changes were also limited, however they adopted and merged traditional Moroccan and Victorian beautification (fig 12). The Abdullah Quilliam Mosque highlighted how easy and effective it is to convert any building into a place of worship - into a mosque by simply adding a mihrab, an additional platform for a mimbar, and a place of purification before worship. This conversion process being considerably cost effective, quicker and easier than building a newly designed purpose-built mosque proved to be very popular 27
