British Muslim Heritage
Blue Plaques of Muslim London

The Blue Plaques Scheme was started in 1867 by the Royal Society of Arts, upon the successful persuasion of MP William Ewart. The Scheme was a way of honouring note-worthy or famous people who had contributed in some way to society, history or to the local area. Initially the Scheme placed more emphasis on the buildings themselves, but more recently it has been adopted by a numbers of boroughs as a way of developing an interest in the history of the local area. The Blue Plaques have proved to be most popular with tourists visiting London, who are only too happy to see where the artists, physicists, statesmen and great literary figures of the past had lived, died, or stopped off. Blue Plaques have become such an attraction for a number of cities, most notably London, that other countries have also considered starting their own collection. Visitors to Cairo over the next few months will be able to view the new plaques popping up all over the city commemorating key figures such as the singer Umm Kulthum.

The Blue Plaques are being erected all the time, and English Heritage along with the local boroughs can be approached with any nominations, either via their websites, or by calling English Heritage at the following number: 0207-973-3794. Local authority archives can confirm address details if otherwise unknown, and probably also the relevant dates.

There are not too many plaques of Muslims in London, but there are an awful lot of plaques for people who had a connection with Islam or Muslims.

Muslim Blue Plaques:
Related Blue Plaques of Muslim London (a selection):

Proposed Muslim Blue Plaques (a selection):
[Dates in brackets indicate when they visited or lived in London. Addresses are given where possible, where unknown it is indicated by “no further details”; and this means that further research has to be done into local borough records.]


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