Gurdwaras in Londonਲੰਡਨ ਦੇ ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰੇ

Gurdwaras in London are the Sikh temples of the capital, serving the 144,543 Sikhs counted in Greater London in the 2021 census. This city guide covers the temples with full entries on Jugti, from Europe's first gurdwara of 1908 in Shepherd's Bush to Southall's great modern temple and Gravesend just beyond the city boundary, in our guide to Gurdwaras in the UK.

What are the gurdwaras in London?

A gurdwara is the Sikh place of worship, literally the doorway to the Guru. Its prayer hall centres on the Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the Sikh scripture honoured as the eternal Guru, and every gurdwara serves langar, a free vegetarian meal open to all, and flies the Nishan Sahib, the saffron flag that marks a Sikh temple. London holds more Sikhs than any other British city, and its gurdwaras range from a converted west London house temple of 1908 to some of the largest Sikh buildings in Europe. In the capital the gurdwara is also a Punjabi school, a seniors' meeting place, a wedding hall and the anchor of neighbourhoods such as Southall, where Punjabi life shapes whole streets.

How did Sikhs come to London?

The first Sikh to settle permanently in Britain was Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last ruler of the Sikh empire, who arrived in England in 1854 after being exiled from his kingdom by the East India Company. His mother, Maharani Jind Kaur, followed in 1860 and settled at Kensington in London. Sikh soldiers of the British Indian Army served across the empire, and a small London community formed around them: in 1908 it founded the Khalsa Jatha British Isles, and in 1911 a gurdwara opened in London, at Putney, in a ceremony performed by Maharaja Bhupindra Singh of Patiala.

The great migration came after the Second World War. Britain's first post war South Asian immigrants included Punjabi Sikhs from the Jullundur Doab, who took work in factories, in transport and around the growing Heathrow Airport, and settled in west London, above all in Southall. East African Asian families who arrived between 1968 and 1974 added thousands more Punjabi households. The 2021 census counted 144,543 Sikhs in Greater London, 1.6 percent of the capital, with the largest borough communities in Ealing at 28,491, Hillingdon at 26,339 and Hounslow at 24,677.

Southall: Mini Punjab and its great temple

Southall, in the borough of Ealing, is the heart of Sikh London, a town often called Little Punjab or Mini Punjab, where the station signs are bilingual in English and Gurmukhi and Punjabi is heard along the Broadway. Its Sikhs first worshipped in homes in the 1940s and 1950s, travelling to Shepherd's Bush for the main gathering, until the Southall Sikh Cultural Society formed in 1960 and met at Shackleton Hall and 11 Beaconsfield Road. A second group, formed by Sikhs arriving from Malaysia and Singapore, merged with it in 1964 as Sri Guru Singh Sabha Southall, and in 1967 the sangat turned a former dairy on Havelock Road into a gurdwara in a matter of weeks.

That dairy site became the temple the community had long planned. Building work began in March 2000, and on 30 March 2003 Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha Southall opened on the road now named Guru Nanak Road, inaugurated by the Prince of Wales, now King Charles III. It cost 17.5 million pounds, raised entirely from donations by the local Sikh community, and it is the largest Sikh temple in London: the main darbar hall seats 3,000 people, and the langar can serve up to 20,000 meals a week. Together with the Sabha's second gurdwara on Park Avenue, it receives more than 15,000 worshippers and visitors every week.

Shepherd's Bush and Gravesend: the first and the largest

At the other end of the story stands the Central Gurdwara (Khalsa Jatha) at 62 Queensdale Road, Shepherd's Bush. The Khalsa Jatha British Isles, founded in 1908 and affiliated to the Chief Khalsa Diwan of Amritsar, is the oldest Sikh institution in Britain, and its temple was the first gurdwara established in Europe. The congregation worshipped at Putney from 1911 and then at 79 Sinclair Road in West Kensington from 1913 to 1969, through two world wars, before moving to its present building, the former Norland Castle, where golden domes were added in the early 1990s. It remains the senior temple of the capital, a small building with an outsized place in European Sikh history.

Just outside the city boundary in Kent, Gravesend holds the giant of this guide. Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara, on Guru Nanak Marg off Saddington Street, opened in November 2010 and is the largest gurdwara in Europe, with three prayer halls, two langar halls and a stated capacity of 10,000. It grew from a first gurdwara in a terraced house on Edwin Street in the 1950s and from the Clarence Place temple that served the town from 1968 to 2010. London families treat it as part of their own circuit, and this guide includes it honestly as the London area temple it has become: a Punjabi school, an elderly day centre, a sports hall and two football pitches sit alongside its prayer halls.

All Gurdwaras in London

Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Southall, London - the largest Sikh temple in London, opened 30 March 2003, its main hall seats 3,000 and its langar can serve 20,000 meals a week

Central Gurdwara (Khalsa Jatha), Shepherd's Bush, London - the oldest gurdwara in the UK and the first in Europe, founded in 1908, on Queensdale Road since 1969

Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara, Gravesend, Kent - the largest gurdwara in Europe, opened in November 2010, with capacity for 10,000, just outside London

Vaisakhi and nagar kirtans in London

Vaisakhi, the spring festival that marks the founding of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh Ji in 1699, brings London's gurdwaras onto the streets. Nagar kirtan processions, hymn singing processions led by the Panj Pyare with the Guru Granth Sahib Ji carried in honour, wind through Southall and other Sikh neighbourhoods, and Southall's procession is among the largest Sikh gatherings in the country. Gravesend has its own long procession tradition: a nagar kirtan of some 3,000 people carried the Guru Granth Sahib Ji from Edwin Street to Clarence Place at that temple's opening in 1968. At festival time the langar halls work at full stretch, feeding worshippers and onlookers alike, Sikh or not.

How do you visit a gurdwara in London?

You are welcome at any of them, Sikh or not, and there is no charge and no need to book. Cover your head, scarves are usually available at the door, remove your shoes, wash your hands, and sit on the floor of the prayer hall for as much of the diwan, the service, as you wish. Stay for langar afterwards if you can: the free vegetarian meal, eaten sitting together, is the gurdwara's oldest welcome and the surest way to understand what these buildings are for. Weekends and festival days are the busiest times, and the best times for a first visit.