A Bolton mosque plan first proposed four years ago has finally been approved, giving the Muslim community a hope for an extended worshipping house.

The Muslim community first made the plan to demolish and rebuild Makkah Mosque on Grecian Crescent, Bolton, in December 2018.

With a taller dome, minaret, and prayer room, the three-storey community and education facility was approved on June 6.

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“It’s been going on a long, long time so I’m pleased now it’s been approved and its finally going to come about,” Cllr Mohammed Ayub, who represents the area on Bolton Council, told The Bolton News.

“It’s going to be a very big project but it’s good news for the community. When it’s done, it’ll be very nice, it’ll be beautiful.”

He added: “They had been using an old school building which wasn’t ideal for religious purposes. But once it’s finished, this new building will be up to standard.”

The Makkah mosque isn’t the first to be demolished and rebuilt in Bolton to accommodate Muslim population.

In 2018, work began on the Taiyabah Islamic Centre to accommodate 1500 worshippers. The mosque was an expansion for the current Taiyabah mosque which was built in 1967.

According to Daily Mail, UK has 1,500 mosques as for March 2018. The British mosques range from humble house conversions for small groups to grand and magnificent purpose-built structures which can accommodate thousands.

The first recorded mosque in Britain was established in a Georgian terraced house in Liverpool in 1889. It wasn’t founded by Muslim immigrants but rather by a group of 20 English converts to Islam led by a local lawyer named Abdullah William Quilliam.