Faith, Community and the Urban Environment

Faith and community in Spitalfields

Migration changes more than the number of people living in a neighbourhood. New arrivals may need places where they can worship, meet others and maintain familiar languages and traditions. Faith organisations can therefore also act as community organisations: a place of worship may bring people together for learning, shared meals and contact with neighbours.

Spitalfields in East London provides a concrete example. The building now used by Brick Lane Jamme Masjid has served different religious communities over time. Its changing use connects the experiences of immigrants to the urban environment—the buildings and streets around them.

One building, successive religious communities

The building was constructed in 1743 as a French Protestant church for Huguenot refugees who had settled in and around Spitalfields after fleeing France. A church serving these refugees gave them a place to practise their religion together. Its establishment shows that settlement involved creating institutions, not simply finding somewhere to live or work.

In 1898, the building became a synagogue, known as the Great Synagogue, serving the growing Jewish population of East London. Jewish refugees had also fled religious persecution in parts of Europe. The building’s new use therefore reflects another community’s need for a shared place of worship.

Today, it is Brick Lane Jamme Masjid, a Muslim place of worship. This sequence demonstrates how an existing building can be adapted to meet the needs of different populations rather than being demolished and replaced.

How a mosque can support community life

Brick Lane Jamme Masjid provides daily prayers and separate prayer rooms and ablution areas for men and women. Ablution is washing associated with preparation for prayer. These facilities show that adapting a building for worship involves providing spaces suited to religious practice.

Its Friday sermons are delivered in Bengali, English and Arabic. The use of several languages connects religious life with the language needs of those attending. It also shows why a religious institution can be important to people maintaining cultural connections while living in Britain.

During Ramadan, the mosque provides iftar, the meal used to break the fast, in its basement. Sharing food makes the building a place of gathering as well as prayer. Its educational activities include study circles, workshops and supplementary religious education for young believers. These activities give faith organisations a role in passing beliefs and practices between generations.

Maintaining identity and building wider connections

Community institutions can help people maintain a shared identity without necessarily separating them from their neighbours. The mosque offers tours and educational visits and states that it aims to work with people of different faiths and no faith to encourage mutual respect and tolerance.

These activities provide opportunities for contact and understanding. However, an organisation’s aims are not the same as proven outcomes: the existence of tours alone cannot establish how far attitudes across the neighbourhood have changed.

The mosque is also not evidence that every local Muslim has the same experiences or participates in its activities. An institution reveals important aspects of community life, but not the whole community.

Reading the urban environment as historical evidence

To interpret a building, connect its use, its users and its date. Here, the 1743 church and the 1898 synagogue show how religious institutions responded to immigrant settlement. The present mosque shows the continuing importance of worship and community activities at the same location.

The strongest conclusion is that this building records successive religious uses associated with population change. It does not show exact population totals or prove that earlier communities disappeared completely. Nor can its present appearance alone establish every stage of its history: dated information about its former uses is needed alongside observation.

Buildings therefore help explain both change and continuity. The religious community using this building has changed, while its role as a place for worship and gathering has continued.

Brick Lane: essential sequence

• 1743: French Protestant church serving Huguenot refugees in and around Spitalfields.
• 1898: became the Great Synagogue, serving East London’s growing Jewish population.
• Today: Brick Lane Jamme Masjid, serving Muslim worshippers.

Roles of faith and community organisations

• Worship: daily prayers; prayer rooms and ablution facilities.
• Language and identity: Friday sermons in Bengali, English and Arabic.
• Gathering and education: Ramadan iftar, study circles and supplementary religious education.
• Wider contact: tours and educational visits; stated aims of interfaith understanding and tolerance.

What the urban environment reveals

Same building + changing religious use → evidence of population change and adaptation.

Continuity: worship and community gathering at the same site.

Limits: changing use does not establish population totals, the disappearance of earlier communities or the achievement of an organisation’s aims.