Harper Road and Dickens Square

/Harper Road and Dickens Square

2015

2015 | 8 | 8|

“Dickens Square: Great Excavations”, an exhibition at the Museum of London, displayed remains of Roman burials and grave goods, 18th century skeletons of diseased cattle, and domestic goods from several historical periods, all discovered in the grounds of the Baitul Aziz Mosque.

2013 - 2014

2013 | 8 | 8|

The need to serve a growing Muslim population for Friday prayers and festivals led to a request for further expansion. Required by law to complete an archaeological survey, Muslim volunteers joined a team of professional archaeologists to dig the land behind the mosque and present the findings to the local community.

1990 and 2006

1990 | 8 | 8|

A site on the corner of Harper Road and Dickens Square was acquired and planning permission was granted to build a mosque. A temporary building, accommodating 400 men, was later replaced with the current larger one, the Baitul Aziz Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre, which caters for 2,500 men and women.

1980s

1980 | 8 | 8|

A small mosque was opened by Bangladeshi Muslim migrants in the basement of a shop in Newington Causeway and used for children’s Qur’an classes. A Bengali women’s group was established at a nearby community centre.

1791-1878

1791 | 8 | 8|

Harper Road was the site of Horsemonger Lane Gaol, one of several prisons in Southwark, where Charles Dickens witnessed a double hanging in 1849. Dickens’ father had been imprisoned as a debtor in another local prison, the Marshalsea.

1580 -1613

1580 | 8 | 8|

This was the period of the early playhouses, from Newington Butts to the south of the area to The Rose, The Swan and The Globe on Bankside, where many of William Shakespeare’s plays were performed.

43-350 AD

1000 | 8 | 8|

The area now known as Southwark was a Roman centre of trade and administration to the south of the Thames, with warehouses, large houses, barracks and temples.