Central Gurdwara Singh Sabha, Glasgowਕੇਂਦਰੀ ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਸਿੰਘ ਸਭਾ, ਗਲਾਸਗੋ

Central Gurdwara Singh Sabha, on Berkeley Street in Glasgow, is Scotland's largest purpose built gurdwara and the hub of the Scottish Sikh community, and it is an entry in our guide to Gurdwaras in the UK. Its phase one building, completed in 2016 after six years of construction, rises in polished limestone under a gold dome that can be seen across the city, holds up to 1,500 worshippers, and grew out of a congregation founded on Berkeley Street in 1981.

What is Central Gurdwara Singh Sabha?

It is the central gurdwara of Glasgow's Sikhs: a place of worship built around the Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the Sikh scripture honoured as the eternal Guru, and far more than a prayer hall. The gurdwara's own site describes it as one of the largest purpose built gurdwaras in Scotland, established in 1981, and it serves as a place where people congregate to practise their faith, gain religious and social education, learn music, eat together and socialise. Its doors, and its langar, the free vegetarian kitchen, are open to everyone, whatever their background or faith.

History: from a tenement flat to Berkeley Street

Glasgow's first gurdwara was a tenement flat on South Portland Street in 1947, serving the small Sikh community that had settled in the city. In 1981 a trust was set up by a group of 20 Sikhs who purchased the existing Berkeley Street building through donations given by the Sikh sangat, the congregation, and Central Gurdwara Singh Sabha was born. The gurdwara also purchased the building at 134 Berkeley Street, which became the Mel-Milaap Elderly Day Care Centre, caring for elderly and disabled people from both the Sikh and the wider communities.

As Glasgow's Sikh families grew, the old building was outgrown. The site for a new temple, the gurdwara's own car park on the land of Glasgow's old Eye Infirmary, was bought in 1999, and the foundation brick was laid on 13 April 1999. Building work began in earnest in November 2010, and phase one was completed in 2016. The Glasgow Times recorded that the finished temple took 16 years of planning and fundraising and six years of building, and cost around 8.5 million pounds for that phase; earlier reports put the full project at 15 million pounds.

A landmark on the Glasgow skyline

The architects were Calford Seaden. The building is faced in polished limestone, with panels hand carved in India and shipped to the UK, and crowned by a striking gold dome of glass reinforced plastic, with the Ik Onkar symbol, the Sikh sign of the one God, set into its front. Inside, the prayer hall sits on the top floor, so that the Guru Granth Sahib Ji rests at the highest point of the structure and no one walks above it. The complex holds a community centre, an education suite, a library and classrooms, with three floors of underground parking for 257 vehicles beneath it.

In the Darbar Sahib, the top floor prayer hall painted a deep royal blue, the Guru Granth Sahib Ji is read every day from a raised platform with accents of gold. No seating is provided in the prayer hall or the dining hall, a deliberate sign that everyone in the congregation is equal. On the first floor is the langar kitchen, where food given by donations is cooked and served by volunteers to anyone who comes.

Prayer, langar and learning

On Sundays, children and students from 3 to 18 years old learn to read, write and speak Punjabi in the classrooms on the ground floor, so that they can read the scriptures for themselves, and an exhibition around the walls introduces visitors to the facets of the Sikh faith and its community. The gurdwara serves as an educational facility for schools from all over Scotland, and for more than three decades it has opened its doors to the wider city, offering food to all walks of life regardless of colour, caste, creed or religion. When fire struck homes on Albert Drive in Pollokshields, the gurdwara was among those that provided shelter.

The hub of Scottish Sikh life

Glasgow has four gurdwaras, and the Central Gurdwara is the one Sikhs travel to from across Scotland for the great days of the year. In November 2019 it hosted the weekend long celebrations of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, drawing worshippers from all over the country. Between festivals, its rhythm is daily prayer and kirtan, weddings and family gatherings, Punjabi classes and the langar that never asks who you are: the visualisation, as one visitor put it, of a community with strong bonds to the city it lives in.

How do you visit Central Gurdwara Singh Sabha?

You visit at 174 Berkeley Street, Glasgow G3 7HY, west of the city centre. Everyone is welcome, Sikh or not, and nothing needs booking. Cover your head, remove your shoes, wash your hands, and sit on the floor of the prayer hall for as long as you wish; afterwards, stay for langar and eat on the same level as everyone else. The gurdwara's own site, central-gurdwara.com, carries its services and programmes.