History of The Temple

Brief History

The London Sri Murugan Temple was established as a charity in 1975.

The objective of the Charity was to establish a Temple for Lord Murugan – popular deity for Tamils in South India, Sri Lanka and many other countries where Tamils are settled.

After the inaugural first pooja meeting in Harrington Square, London in April 1975, monthly prayers were held in Russell Square, Central London. The prayer meetings were held on Sundays following Karthigai of every month. These meetings brought devotees together from various parts of London and the Charity became well established.

In the late seventies, prayer meetings moved to East London and for several years held in local venues until a permanent residence was established and Temple was built in Browning Road in Manor Park.

The first consecration of the Temple took place in February 1984. Although the Temple was small and humble it grew in popularity and devotees flocked to the Temple regularly.

The Goal of the Trustees and Management Committee was to build a bigger Temple to accommodate larger numbers as well as a Temple that was traditional and conforming to strict South Indian Temple architectural principles.

In 2005, this goal was achieved with the opening of a grand new Temple built mostly in granite with a 50 feet Rajagopuram (Tower) and most definitely conforming to the South Indian Temple architecture. The Temple had become a phenomenal success not only as a place for prayers but also as a community centre for social and cultural services.

Our priests are well renowned and hail from the most prestigious Hindu educational centres in Tamil Nadu. They are regularly asked to visit and perform prayers at national and international important and auspicious functions.

The Temple is now a well established landmark in the London Borough of Newham and we are pleased to have a good relationship with Newham Council supporting our services. There are many visitors and also students from schools visit on a regular basis. Our annual festival, in particular, Chariot festival when Lord Murugan is paraded through the streets in a beautiful Chariot, attracts about 10,000 visitors.

Looking forward to the future, we want to do more for the community. We want to build improved community facilities and a wedding venue in the Temple grounds to better facilitate and improve the services we currently provide.

We will be starting this project very soon and hope that we will receive good support from all the well wishers.

Trustees – London Sri Murugan Temple