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Glasgow Central Mosque given category-A listing

Getty Images Exterior of Glasgow Central mosque - red stone building with lit dome and a paved courtyardGetty Images
Glasgow Central Mosque is Scotland's largest mosque with capacity for 2,500 worshippers

The Glasgow Central Mosque (GCM) has been granted category-A listed building status by Historic Environment Scotland (HES).

The categorization covers the mosque's original paved courtyard with garden, boundary walls and railing but excludes a hall that was added at a later date.

The four-acre (1.62ha) site opened to the public in 1984 at a cost of £3m and was the first purpose-built mosque in Glasgow.

Listed status, awarded by HES, recognises buildings with special architectural or historical interest.

The mosque is located on Mosque Avenue, next to the A-listed Victoria Bridge and B-listed Union Railway Bridge.

It was or the Jamiat Ittehead ul Muslimin (the Muslim Mission), an organisation established in Scotland in 1933 by early migrants from India.

The organisation was previously based in the Gorbals area, and inaugurated the first mosque in Scotland in a converted tenement block in 1944.

Plans for a purpose-built mosque for the community had begun by the early 1950s and plans for the GCM were approved in 1977.

The location, on the southern bank of the Clyde, was the former site of the Adelphi whisky distillery.

The building was completed in two phases by architects W.M. Copeland and Associates and Coleman Ballantine Partnership.

Getty Images Glasgow Central Mosque on the River Clyde. A red stone building with glass dome, surrounded by trees and a tall, slender minaret towerGetty Images
The mosque was built on the former site of the Adelphi whisky distillery

The GCM is the first mosque building in Scotland to be built according to Islamic architectural traditions with a courtyard and central gathering space , garden, an entrance "iwan", a dome and arched openings.

The glass dome and minaret tower, which calls worshippers to prayer five times a day, is a recognisable part of the city skyline.

The mosque opened on 18 May 1984 with capacity for up to 2,500 worshipers and is Scotland's largest mosque.

The mosque community aims to help tackle poverty in the city and provides more than 350 weekly food parcels to asylum seekers and refugees every Sunday and during Ramadan.

During the Covid pandemic, the mosque's function suite was used as a vaccination centre by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

HES said: "We decided to list the Glasgow Central Mosque at category A in recognition of its architectural quality, its status as the first mosque building designed according to Islamic architectural traditions in Scotland, and its important role in the development of the Muslim community in Scotland in the second half of the 20th century."