London Sri Murugan Temple (East Ham, Manor Park)

Among the red-brick terraces of Church Road a tower suddenly rises: a 50-foot rajagopuram over granite walls, with temple bells ringing inside. For Tamils far from home it feels like the temple back in their own town. In the sanctum Murugan stands with Valli and Deivanai.

The temple began as a handful of people with a hope. In 1975 a charity was registered to give Murugan, the god Tamils turn to most, a home in London. The first puja was held that April in Harrington Square. After that, devotees from all over the city met in Russell Square in central London on the Sunday after each month's Karthigai star. In the late 1970s the gatherings moved east, and for some years they made do with hired halls.

Land on Church Road, East Ham, was bought in 1983. In February 1984 a small temple on the Browning Road side had its first consecration, and the first chariot ran that same year. The building was modest, the crowd outgrew it, and the trustees decided on a large stone temple that would follow South Indian temple rules to the letter.

It took almost five years. Granite and marble were carved in India and shipped to London, and the whole cost was met by the people who would worship there. The doors of the new temple opened at 6 am on 22 May 2005. In a country where most temples were converted churches and halls, it was among the first built new from the ground up in the South Indian style.

Murugan shares the temple with a large divine household: Anantha Vinayagar and six-faced Shanmugar, Nataraja and Dakshinamurthy, Jeya Durga, Bhairava, Venkateswara with Mahalakshmi, Guruvayurappan, Ayyappan, Anjaneyar, the sage Agastya, the poet Arunagirinathar, Idumban and the Navagraha. The priests trained at well-known religious schools in Tamil Nadu. The temple is also a social and cultural centre, and school groups visit regularly.

The high point of the year is the chariot festival in the Tamil month of Aadi. It opens with the flag hoisting and days of processions, and on the chariot day Murugan is pulled through the streets of East Ham by crowds of more than 10,000; over 15,000 came on 24 July 2022.

1975: charity registered to build a Murugan temple; first puja in Harrington Square that April, then monthly worship in Russell Square. Late 1970s: worship moves to East London. 1983: land bought on Church Road. February 1984: first consecration of a small temple, and the first chariot festival that year. 22 May 2005: the new granite temple with its 50-foot rajagopuram opens.