Masjid Ramadan was originally built as the Stoke Newington Synagogue. You can still see the foundation stone outside the building facing Shacklewell Lane. It records that the stone was laid by the Hon. Nathaniel Charles Rothschild, the Chairman of the Building Committee, on 13 September 1903, along with Gustav Tuck, the Treasurer of the Building Committee. The architect was Lewis Solomon FRIBA, and the builders were the Perry Brothers.
Solomon (1848-1928) had a major influence on the design of British synagogues. He was Honorary Architect to the Federation of Synagogues, and was Architect and Surveyor to the United Synagogue. The Stoke Newington Synagogue was his biggest commission.
The Stoke Newington Synagogue was built as the successor to the New Dalston Synagogue. The new synagogue gave seated accommodation for 450 men and 300 women. The associated school had room for 250 children. On its completion the synagogue was described as “plain but substantial, and the simplicity of the internal decoration is effective”.
In 1967 the synagogue incorporated the congregation of the Dalston Synagogue. A little under a decade later, the Stoke Newington Synagogue closed and the congregation was amalgamated with Hackney Synagogue in 1976.
With the formation of the UK Turkish Islamic Trust in 1977, its chair Ramadan Guney led the negotiations for acquiring the former synagogue. This resulted in the acquisition of the building and surrounding land, making it the first Turkish-owned mosque in Britain, serving the large Turkish and Turkish Cypriot community in the area.
Commonly known as Shacklewell Lane Mosque, it is one of Hackney’s earliest mosques and certainly one of its largest.
Over the years, the mosque has evolved, serving an increasingly diverse Muslim community, a reflection of the changing demographics of Dalston and Stoke Newington.
