The East London Mosque on Whitechapel Road welcomes visitors who are not Muslim, free of charge, but it is a working mosque first: the halls fill five times a day for congregational prayer, and on Friday lunchtimes the whole complex is full. The way in is a free guided tour booked ahead, or, if you arrive without one, a polite question at reception at a time when no prayer is due.
The mosque, the London Muslim Centre next door and the Maryam Centre behind them form one large complex between Aldgate East and Whitechapel stations, run by the East London Mosque Trust. Our guide to London for Muslim visitors already sets out the tour times, the dress code and Friday prayers at both of London's big mosques. This page is about this one building: how it came to be here, how to read the prayer timetable so you arrive at a quiet moment, and the days to stay away.
The East London Mosque at a glance
- Address
- 82–92 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1JQ. London Muslim Centre at 46 Whitechapel Road, E1 1JX; Maryam Centre on Fieldgate Street at the rear
- Doors
- Entrance 3: men's prayer area and reception. Entrance 4: women's prayer area and reception
- Cost
- Free, including guided tours; donations welcome
- Tours
- Booked in advance by form. Schools Tuesday to Thursday from 10.30am; university and adult groups Tuesday and Thursday afternoons; about 90 minutes; up to 30 people
- Without a booking
- Ask the Visits Team or reception on arrival; a tour depends on staff being free
- Stations
- Aldgate East, about 6 minutes' walk; Whitechapel, about 8 minutes
- Access
- The whole tour route is wheelchair accessible. No visitor parking
From a 1910 fund to a minaret on Whitechapel Road
The building is from 1985, but the institution is much older. In 1910 a group of prominent Muslims in London, with some non-Muslim supporters, set up the London Mosque Fund to give the capital a mosque. For three decades the fund hired rooms for Friday prayers and festivals. Its trustees over the years included the Aga Khan and two famous translators of the Qur'an into English, Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Marmaduke Pickthall.
In 1940 the fund bought three houses on Commercial Road, a few minutes south of the present site, and converted them. The East London Mosque opened there on Friday 1 August 1941, in the middle of the war. In the post-war decades, as migrant workers settled in the East End, it became the focus of a growing community, and the trust's own history describes how its role widened from prayer to the practical needs of local families.
In 1975 the Greater London Council bought the Commercial Road houses under a compulsory purchase order and gave the mosque temporary buildings on a new plot on Whitechapel Road. The community raised the money for a purpose-built mosque there. Work began in 1982 and it opened on Friday 12 July 1985, with the dome and minaret that are now one of the landmarks of the street.
Three buildings that work as one
The 1985 mosque was soon too small on Fridays and in Ramadan. After a long campaign for the neighbouring land, the London Muslim Centre was built next door and opened in June 2004; the then Prince Charles launched the project in 2001 and came back to see it finished. It holds more prayer space and the classrooms, offices and halls that the mosque's community work needs.
The third building, the Maryam Centre, faces Fieldgate Street at the back and opened in 2013. It added facilities for women, more prayer space, a visitor centre and improved funeral facilities. Also at the rear, on Fieldgate Street, is a former synagogue that the mosque now counts as part of its site, a reminder that this corner of the East End was home to a large Jewish community before the Bengali one.
The most recent work extended the men's main prayer hall and the women's prayer hall on the second floor. Part of it opened temporarily for Ramadan in 2024, and the extension opened officially on Friday 28 March 2025. From the pavement you see the mosque's red-brick front and minaret and the taller, plainer London Muslim Centre beside it; the Maryam Centre is only visible from Fieldgate Street.
Reading the timetable so you arrive at a quiet moment
The single most useful thing a visitor can do is look at the day's prayer times before setting out. Each of the five daily prayers has a time it begins and a later time for the congregational prayer, called the jamā'ah. It is the jamā'ah that fills the halls, and that is when a visitor should not be wandering in. The mosque publishes the whole year as a PDF and shows the day's times on every page of its website.
The times move a great deal with the seasons, because they follow the sun. In winter the afternoon is crowded, with three congregational prayers between about 12:45 and 16:30. In summer the late-afternoon and evening prayers move far into the evening, which leaves most of the working day clear.
| Congregational prayer (jamā'ah) | Early June 2026 | November 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Fajr (dawn) | about 03:10 | about 05:35 to 06:15 |
| Zuhr (midday), Monday to Thursday and weekends | 13:30 | 12:45 |
| Jumu'ah (Friday), sermon about 30 minutes earlier | 13:45 | 13:00 |
| 'Asr (afternoon) | 19:00 | 15:00, then 14:45 from 12 November and 14:30 from 24 November |
| Maghrib (sunset) | about 21:20 | about 16:30, falling to 16:06 by the end of the month |
| 'Ishā (night) | 22:45 | 19:30 |
The table is read from the mosque's 2026 timetable, which says it is based on the London Unified Prayer Timetable. Check the current day on the mosque's website rather than relying on a month-old printout. In practice, on a winter weekday, mid-morning is the easy window, and there is a shorter one between the end of the midday prayer, at about 13:15, and the afternoon prayer.
Each prayer takes a while to clear. The jamā'ah itself is short, but people arrive before it and leave slowly after it, and the corridors and shoe racks are busiest in the quarter of an hour either side. Aim to arrive at least twenty minutes before or after a congregational time, not on the minute.
Turning up without a booking
The mosque does not publish general opening hours for casual sightseers, and it does not promise that someone will show you round. What it says is that individuals who arrive without a booking should ask the Visits Team or reception about a guided tour, which depends on whether staff are free. Go to reception through Entrance 3, or Entrance 4 for women, say you are visiting and ask. Weekday mornings, Tuesday to Thursday, are when the visits team is most likely to be in the building, because that is when it takes school groups.
If you are a group of more than a handful, or you have come a long way, use the booking form instead and book well ahead; the mosque says dates go quickly. The basics of what to wear and how to behave are in the visitors' guide linked above: in short, shoes off before the prayer halls, arms covered below the elbow, legs below the knee, and a scarf over the head and chest for women, which the mosque can lend. Our page on British etiquette covers the wider picture.
On cameras, the mosque allows personal photographs and video only if they avoid the people praying, and it asks anyone filming for other purposes to get permission from its media team first. The outside of the building, seen from across Whitechapel Road, is the picture most visitors want. Our guide to photography rules in London covers filming in the street.
When not to go
- Friday from late morning to mid-afternoon. The sermon starts about half an hour before the Jumu'ah prayer, the halls and the London Muslim Centre overflow, and the pavement stays packed long after the prayer ends.
- Ramadan evenings. The fasting month moves about eleven days earlier each year. The mosque publishes a separate Ramadan timetable each year, usually a few weeks before it starts; around sunset and the night prayers the building is at its busiest.
- The two Eids. On the morning of each Eid the festival prayers fill the mosque. It is a religious occasion, not an event for visitors. Our page on Eid in London explains the difference between the prayers and the public celebrations.
- Funerals. The mosque has funeral facilities at the rear of the site. If you see a gathering there, give it space.
Do not plan a visit around the Friday sermon. It is the one time when even a polite enquiry at reception is badly timed. Come Tuesday to Thursday, before the midday prayer, and you will find staff with time to talk.
The street around the mosque
The mosque stands on the stretch of Whitechapel Road where the City's office blocks give way to the East End proper. West of it, beside Aldgate East station, is the Whitechapel Gallery, free to enter. East of it, opposite Whitechapel station, is the Royal London Hospital. Our neighbourhood guide to Whitechapel and the East End walks the whole road.
Brick Lane is about a ten-minute walk north. Our guides to Brick Lane and its curry houses and to halal food in London name places and give their hygiene ratings. North again is Spitalfields, where the Jamme Masjid on Brick Lane worships in a building that three other congregations used before it.
If you are staying nearby, our page on staying in Whitechapel and Aldgate explains the difference between the two sides of the station. For London's other great places of worship that welcome visitors, see the London Central Mosque in Regent's Park, the Neasden Temple, and, a short walk west into the City, Bevis Marks Synagogue. Further west again, inside St Bartholomew's Hospital, St Bartholomew the Less is another place of prayer that asks visitors to remember who it is for.
Frequently asked questions
Can non-Muslims visit the East London Mosque?
Yes. The mosque says it hosts many visitors every year, from tourists and schools to police and NHS staff. Guided tours are free and are booked in advance through the mosque's form; if you arrive without a booking, ask reception whether a member of the Visits Team is free to show you round.
When is the best time to visit the East London Mosque?
Tuesday to Thursday mornings, well before the midday congregational prayer, which is at 12:45 in November 2026 and 13:30 in early June. Avoid Fridays from late morning, Ramadan evenings and the mornings of Eid, when the building is full of worshippers.
When was the East London Mosque built?
The present mosque on Whitechapel Road opened on 12 July 1985. The congregation is older: it began in three converted houses on Commercial Road, which opened as the East London Mosque on 1 August 1941, and the fund behind it was set up in 1910. The London Muslim Centre followed in 2004 and the Maryam Centre in 2013.
Which entrance do visitors use at the East London Mosque?
Entrance 3 on Whitechapel Road leads to the men's prayer area and the main reception, and Entrance 4 to the women's prayer area and reception. The Maryam Centre is reached from Fieldgate Street at the back of the site.
Can I take photographs inside the East London Mosque?
The mosque allows photographs and video for personal use as long as they do not capture worshippers. Anything for publication or commercial use needs permission from the mosque's media team before your visit.
Sources
- East London Mosque - Guided tours and guidelines for visitors (checked November 2026)
- East London Mosque - History of the East London Mosque (checked November 2026)
- East London Mosque - Our location, entrances and transport (checked November 2026)
- East London Mosque - Prayer times and 2026 timetable (checked November 2026)
- Transport for London - Journey planner (walking times from Aldgate East and Whitechapel) (checked November 2026)