A big mosque funded by a Muslim billionaire is ready to be constructed contained in the Trocadero leisure complicated, within the centre of London’s West End.

Asif Aziz, 56, a London-based billionaire entrepreneur and the founder and Chief Executive of property firm Criterion Capital, will oversee the constructing of a three-storey Islamic centre between Soho and Piccadilly Circus, the Daily Mail reported.

It will occupy the house that beforehand belonged to a Metro cinema, which shut in 2006, inside the Trocadero, which was bought in May 2005 by Mr Aziz.

The new home of prayer is anticipated to have a capability of 390 worshippers.

Previous bids to construct a mosque with capability for 1,000 folks had been pulled in 2020 following complaints from residents and a backlash from far-right teams.

Far-right group Britain First organised a petition towards the proposal. At the time, the Conservative councillor Matthew Green instructed the BBC that some feedback objecting to the proposal had been racist, hateful and “utterly repellant”, and that some had been shared with the police.

However, Westminster City Council greenlit a planning utility for a smaller improvement on the finish of May this 12 months.

“A planning application by the Aziz Foundation to convert a part of the London Trocadero was approved by the council’s planning committee in May 2023,” a council spokesperson instructed the Mail on Sunday.

Mr Aziz has a property portfolio of greater than £2 billion, and owns round 40 London properties. The mosque will probably be funded by way of his charity, the Aziz Foundation.

Famous baroque façade
 

The Trocadero is considered one of central London’s most well-known leisure complexes, that includes a well-known ornate baroque façade, and the Zedwell Hotel, a 490-room resort complicated.

The unique Trocadero Restaurant opened in 896 on Coventry Street, near the West End’s theatres. It served as a restaurant for nearly 70 years however closed in 1965, earlier than reopening as an exhibition and leisure space in 1984, that includes a Guinness Book of World Records Exhibition.

In the Nineties, the constructing acquired sponsorship from business manufacturers together with Sega, and have become recognized for its video-game SegaWorld arcade sights. Pepsi sponsored the construct of the Pepsi IMAX cinema, the primary 3D IMAX cinema within the UK, which opened within the constructing in 1997.

It was renamed “Funland” earlier than its closure in 2011.

The West End incorporates a small variety of Mosques, together with the Islamic Centre in Soho. The leisure quarter is dwelling to Soho’s homosexual bars, evening golf equipment and alcohol-serving venues, that are prohibited in Islam.

The Aziz Foundation has stated the mosque will cater to each vacationers and Muslims working within the space.

Mr Aziz, who’s nicknamed Mr West End, was accused of being `Britain’s ‘meanest landlord’ by the Times throughout lockdown after allegedly threatening his West End tenants, which embody espresso and cake chain Caffe Concerto and a number of other cocktail bars, with winding-up petitions if they didn’t pay their hire on time.

Mr Aziz instructed the Times in 2020 that he was “tough but fair”. He stated: “We have not issued a statutory demand to anyone who has not got a strong balance sheet.”

In 2017, it was reported the tycoon had argued at a High Court that his estranged spouse was not entitled to his then estimated £1.1 billion fortune, as that they had faked their marriage certificates in Malawi to carry an adopted little one to the UK.

An out-of-court settlement was latterly reached.