FIRST MOSQUES IN BIRMINGHAM
FIRST: CONVERTED HOUSE MOSQUE ZAWIYA MOSQUE (1942) “1st Ever Mosque Established in Birmingham, UK. A very simple mosque with amazing people. Situated in the heart of Birmingham, The Zawiya Mosque opened its doors to the public since 1942 and continues to fulfil its promise.” (Zawiya Mosque, Google) The first mosque in Birmingham, just like the majority of the earliest mosques in almost every city was a conversion of a terraced house on Edward Road in Balsall Heath named Zawiya Mosque. The terraced conversion mosque was founded by the Yemeni sailor community who resided in Birmingham following some communities settling in Cardiff and Liverpool during the same period of the late 1930s and early 1940s. As the quote from the Zawiya mosque mentions, it is a simple mosque regarding its architectural features. Externally, the only visual mark of a mosque is the signage that reads the name of the mosque in Arabic and English. The exterior blends in comfortably with the terraced typology of the road without any Islamic architectural features. In theory, the mosque meets the objectives and requirements of a space to qualify it to become a place of worship, to become a masjid. It does not however have any real character to represent a particular style to the origin of its people. It simply falls under the umbrella of a converted place of worship – a converted mosque.
46
