Grand event held to inaugurate the UK’s largest mosque which was destroyed in a 2015 fire

Aerial view of the renovated Baitul Futuh Mosque in Morden, London (Image by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

The UK’s largest mosque hosted its grand reopening at the 2023 National Peace Symposium of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community during the weekend.

The Baitul Futuh Mosque in Morden, London, had been destroyed after a fire broke out in 2015 which majorly affected its administration building.

Hundreds of people turned up for the inauguration at the refurbished mosque which now features an ‘ornate, geometric frontage’ after the ‘£20m improvement project’ was completed, the BBC reported.

The mosque, which has a capacity of accommodating over 13,000 worshippers, had about 50% of the administration building’s ground floor damaged due to the fire on 26 September 2015. Part of the first floor and a section of the roof were also destroyed.

Only a few worshippers were reported to have been inside the building when the incident occurred and 70 firefighters came to the scene to put the fire out.

London Fire Brigade station manager Philip Morton said at the time that the mosque had “escaped completely unscathed” as the large prayer halls survived the fire.

The administration building now features a five-storey complex with multipurpose halls, offices and guest rooms, the BBC wrote.