Over the past decade, as residents of Beardwood, we have relied on the generosity of individuals within the community offering their homes for us to offer our daily salaah with jamaat and to carry out the work of deen.

In 2012, we secured planning permission to build a purpose-built musallah on a piece of land in Beardwood, known as The Garden Centre car park, which was purchased with the generous donations and qardh-e-hasna of individual brothers and sisters; however, as a result of a technical issue, the application was revoked by the council. Since then, we have been in a dilemma as to how this plot of land could be utilised in an appropriate and effective manner.

After a patient struggle, and the persistent effort of the Muslim residents of Beardwood in the subsequent years, Alhamdullillah, in August 2017, we were finally successful in securing planning permission on a property located at 55 Beardwood Brow. This property is located a stone’s throw away from the pocket of land that we previously purchased. The benefit of this is that we can now use the land as a car park, and the property at 55 Beardwood Brow as a musallah and a prayer facility. We may plan but ultimately Allah SWT is the best of planners.

The demographics are fast-changing in Beardwood, where the increasing number of Muslim residents constitute for almost 50% of the local residents, this has driven the strong need for a place of worship within the area. This facility will be charity registered and will be dedicated towards ensuring the spiritual and moral well-being of all residents, as well as to promote community relations and social cohesion so we can better understand each other, remove fear and foster a peaceful and harmonious co-existence.