IN 2023 RAMADAN WILL occur between about the 22nd of March and the 21st of April. To celebrate this holy Islamic month, a colourful pavilion has been erected in the courtyard of the Exhibition Road entrance to the Victoria and Albert (‘V&A’) museum. It has been designed by Shahed Saleem and set up by The Ramadan Tent Project and the V&A. According to the museum’s webpage (www.vam.ac.uk/event/ok1kLZm29xJ/ramadan-pavilion-march-may-2023), the pavilion:
“…draws inspiration from the V&A’s Prints and Drawings collection to represent the history of the mosque and Muslims in Britain.”
Another webpage (https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/museum-life/the-ramadan-pavilion-by-shahed-saleem) contains some interesting information about the history of Islamic edifices in the UK. The first mosque in Britain was built in 1889 in Liverpool by 20 British converts to Islam. It was housed in a Georgian terraced house. Since the arrival of many Muslim migrants in the UK im the 1950s and ‘60s, there is now a sizeable Muslim population in the country, and they worship in Britain’s approximately 1800 mosques. The earliest of these were in converted buildings, but now there are plenty of purpose-built mosques. Of these, one of the most beautiful and original is the mosque in Mill Road, Cambridge.
Shahed Saleem is an architect who specialises in designing mosques. Apparently, his pavilion at the V&A is the result of years spent studying mosques in Britain. With his Ramadan Pavilion, Saleem hopes that it will encourage people, who have never entered mosques, to explore mosque architecture and encourage them to enter these holy places to discover more about them. Well, that is an admirable aim, but from what I have seen of the pavilion, it is unlikely to fulfil that aim.
Undoubtedly, Saleem’s pavilion incorporates elements of mosque architecture and design. Sadly, it looks to me more like a children’s play area than a homage to Islamic architecture. I love Islamic architecture, but feel that the multi-coloured pavilion, which resembles something made with over-sized Lego bricks, does not respect the great beauty, delicacy, and intricateness that can be found in mosques both old and modern.