Ipswich Mosque

The Ipswich & Suffolk Bangladeshi Muslim Community Centre and Mosque — commonly known as Ipswich Mosque — was founded in 1984 by local Bangladeshi Muslims. It is housed in a former Victorian fire station on Bond Street, which the community purchased for use as a community centre and place of worship. In its early years the building was basic and male-only, with an initial capacity of around 50 worshippers and a typical Friday attendance of only 15 to 20 people.

As the congregation grew through the 1990s, the mosque became severely overcrowded, with worshippers at times praying outside in the car park. To ease the pressure the community purchased a portacabin in 1994, but this was often still not enough. A vacant building in nearby Upper Orwell Street was later acquired to expand the mosque and to provide a dedicated area for women.

Today the mosque serves the wider Bangladeshi Muslim community of Ipswich and Suffolk, offering daily congregational prayers, Friday Jummah, education for children and adults, counselling, and services relating to birth, marriage and death. Women pray towards the back of the prayer hall or in an upstairs area that provides privacy.

The organisation is a registered charity (Charity Commission no. 1104877) and a company limited by guarantee (Companies House no. 04261698, incorporated 30 July 2001).