Brick Lane Jamme Masjid: One Building, Four Congregations
Why is it significant?
On the corner of Fournier Street and Brick Lane stands a plain Georgian building of brown brick, with a sundial high on its wall and, beside it, a slender minaret of steel. Find the sundial first. Beneath it are two Latin words: Umbra sumus. We are shadows.
Key Facts
| Place | Brick Lane Jamme Masjid: One Building, Four Congregations |
|---|---|
| Address | 59 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL, United Kingdom |
| Geo Coordinates | 51.51940, -0.07210 |
| Part of Walk | Four Waves of Newcomers: Whitechapel, Spitalfields & Brick Lane in London's East End |
| Generated | Generated |
On the corner of Fournier Street and Brick Lane stands a plain Georgian building of brown brick, with a sundial high on its wall and, beside it, a slender minaret of steel. Find the sundial first. Beneath it are two Latin words: Umbra sumus. We are shadows.
The building was put up in 1743 by Huguenots as their chapel, La Neuve Église, the New Church, and that year is still there by the sundial. As the French community slowly dissolved into the English one, the chapel passed to a society that tried to convert Jews to Christianity, and then, from 1819, to the Methodists. Hymns in the style of John Wesley's followers rang out where French psalms had been sung.
In 1898 the building changed faith again. It became the Spitalfields Great Synagogue, home of Machzike Hadath, the upholders of the religion, a strictly Orthodox congregation of Jews from Eastern Europe. For decades this corner was one of the beating hearts of Jewish Spitalfields, with study and prayer from dawn into the night. Then, after the Second World War, Jewish families moved out to the suburbs, to Stamford Hill and north-west London, and the synagogue emptied.
In 1976 the building was bought by the Bangladeshi community and became the Brick Lane Jamme Masjid, the great mosque, and thousands now come to pray here on Fridays. The steel minaret was added only in the 2000s. Think of it: French Calvinists, Methodists, Orthodox Jews and Sunni Muslims, four congregations of newcomers who each arrived poor, each were looked at with suspicion, and each found a home inside these same four walls. There may be no better single building in London for understanding what this city is.
And the sundial goes on counting the hours. We are shadows, it says, and so is every congregation that has passed beneath it. Walk south down Brick Lane now, past the curry houses and the sari shops, all the way to the end. Then turn right along Whitechapel High Street and look for a narrow building with golden leaves scattered across its face.