Glasgow Central Mosque, 1 Mosque Avenue

Glasgow Central Mosque

A large purpose-built mosque designed in 1977 and opened on 18 May 1984. It was designed by W.M. Copeland & Associates, with the first stage of construction (the building shell) managed by them until around 1981. Coleman Ballantine Partnership then completed the second stage from 1981 to 1984, finishing all interiors, services, the main entrance and external works.

The building is designed in a Postmodern style that reinterprets traditional Islamic architectural features and motifs. It comprises two main rectangular volumes linked by a gallery and set around a central courtyard. A prominent glass dome surmounts the large prayer hall, and a tall concrete minaret pierces through the linking gallery. The structure is built of red brick and concrete and occupies a prominent location on the southern bank of the Clyde in the Gorbals area of Glasgow.

The largest volume, located at the east of the site, is a two-storey building with a basement containing the masjid (prayer hall) and wazu (washrooms). The principal northwest façade features a central full-height iwan (vaulted space opening on one side to a courtyard) with a projecting archway accessed directly from the courtyard. The archway is formed of a four-pointed arch made of pigmented red concrete, within which are set muqarnas (concave vaults or coffers) made of bronze-coloured glass-reinforced plastic. Below the muqarnas is a two-storey glazed entrance, separated at the first storey by a band of terracotta tiles. On either side of the entrance stand three full-height projecting cantilevered buttresses that taper upwards, faced with concrete and glazed on either side. The northeast elevation of the masjid features three buttresses grouped at the eastern side. The rear southeast elevation features a single central projecting buttress flanked by four full-height windows on either side. The southwestern elevation has three projecting buttresses at the east side and a brick mortuary attached to the west side. Topping the prayer hall is a large multifaceted dome of gold and coloured glass, crowned with a crescent moon finial.

A single-storey corridor wing links the masjid to the community hall. The northwest elevation of the corridor, facing the courtyard, features a glazed colonnade of four-point arches built of concrete, with metal brattishing in an oval motif spanning the length of the gallery top. The corridor houses offices, a library and committee room. At its centre, the base of a tall concrete minaret sits in the middle of the corridor and pierces through the roof, topped with a crescent moon finial.

At the west of the linking gallery is a two-storey community hall built in 2003. It is constructed of brick with double-height four-point-arched openings on the southeast elevation and contains a large hall with kitchen and other facilities.

The interior of the masjid features a large open prayer room with a central mihrab (niche indicating the direction of Mecca) of green and gold geometric decoration on the southeast wall. Between the windows, plaster decorations in green and gold form bays along the walls. The hall floor is covered with green carpet lined in gold rows to indicate spacing for each worshipper. The concave dome in the ceiling is tinted green with a large star and Kufic calligraphy in its central circle. The female prayer area is a balcony overlooking the main prayer hall, floored with red carpet and a detailed golden arch indicating a worshipper's space. Throughout the masjid are decorative finishes including a geometrical-patterned ceiling in the entrance hall, carved wooden doors and screens. The interior decorative scheme remains largely unaltered since construction.

The courtyard is paved with a geometric star pattern at its centre. At the northwest is a small Arabesque-style garden lined by trees. A brick boundary wall surrounds the site with iron railings featuring geometric patterns in gold. Gates at the main entrance on Gorbals Street at the northwest and at the south feature a central geometric shape echoing that of the mosque's glass dome.

The Glasgow Central Mosque was built for Jamiat Ittehad ul Muslimin (the Muslim Mission), an organisation established in Scotland in 1933 by early migrants from India, many settled in the Gorbals. The Jamiat acquired property at 27/29 Oxford Street in the Gorbals and inaugurated Scotland's first mosque in this converted tenement in 1944. It comprised a large public hall, six flats and two shop units, first labelled as "Muslim mosque" on the 1968 Ordnance Survey map.

With the demolition and regeneration of Gorbals buildings and tenements from the 1960s, Glasgow Corporation purchased the property at 27/29 Oxford Street by Compulsory Order, requiring alternative space. Glasgow entrepreneur Mohammad Tufail Shaeen, who later became president of Jamiat Ittehad ul Muslimin, donated his property at nearby Carlton Place, which served as a replacement mosque until the new purpose-built building was constructed.

Plans for a purpose-built mosque had begun as early as the 1950s and were finally approved in 1977. The location selected was a large area on the southern bank of the Clyde on the site of the cleared former Adelphi Distillery. The major of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, reportedly visited the Jamiat Ittehad ul Muslimin around 1976 and observed that their plans at that time were too modest; given the community's strength of feeling, he advised them to proceed with an ambitious mosque and social centre.

Work commenced in August 1979. The structural shell was completed around 1981, at which point W.M. Copeland & Associates' commission was terminated. The building project cost approximately £2.5 million and was financed by the Jamiat Ittehad ul Muslimin, Glasgow's Muslim community, and through donations from the Prince of Mecca and the Major of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. The mosque was opened with a capacity for up to 1,500 worshippers. The opening was attended by the Imam of the Holy Kaaba in Mecca and Dr Abdullah Oman Naseef, secretary general of the World Muslim League, as well as representatives of Scotland's Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Sikh communities.

The building remains in use as a mosque. The roofing material was replaced after 2003. A small rectangular single-storey glazed addition was added to the rear southeast elevation of the masjid around 2018, and solar panels were added to the rear of the prayer hall roof around 2021.