Shah Jehan Mosque, Woking, Surrey
The Mosque was built in 1889 and designed by W.I. Chambers. It was built by Dr Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner. He established an Oriental Institute in 1883 and, with a donation from the Begum Shah Jahan, the Nawab Begum of Bhopal, built England's first mosque. It was mainly used by visiting dignitaries and notables from Muslim nations. It is thought that also amongst early worshippers were Queen Victoria's Muslim Servants Abdul Karim and Mohammed Buksh. In 1912 it was bought by an Indian lawyer, Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din who founded the Muslim Mission Woking to spread the message of Islam to the people of Great Britain. He became the mosque's first imam. From the 1960s it has served mainly as a local mosque.
