A Muslim billionaire is building a giant mosque in the heart of London‘s entertainment quarter, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Asif Aziz, 56, a property tycoon known as ‘Mr West End’, is establishing the three-storey temple and Islamic centre inside the Trocadero, which is situated between Piccadilly Circus and Soho.
The three-storey house of prayer, which will have a capacity of 390 worshippers, will fill the space left vacant when a Metro cinema closed down in 2006.
Previous proposals for a 1,000-capacity mosque on the site were withdrawn in 2020 following a backlash from residents as well as far-right groups.
But a planning application for a smaller development was approved at the end of May by Westminster Council.
A council spokesperson confirmed to The Mail on Sunday: ‘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.’
Asif Aziz leaves the Royal Courts of Justice in London in 2017, where he argued his former “wife” Tagilde Aziz was not entitled to a share in a £1.1bn fortune
The Trocadero, London W1, which was – in May 2005 – bought for £220 milllion by Asif Aziz, who owns almost forty London properties. Pictured here in November 2011
Image shows a rendering of what the remodelled building could look like as a mosque
Picture shows the launch of Segaworld at The Trocadero in London, Britain, in 1996
It is thought that the mosque – which may be called ‘Piccadilly Prayer Space’ – could be open within months. But critics have questioned whether it should be built in an area filled with alcohol-serving bars, nightclubs and Soho’s gay venues and strip joints – all of which are shunned by Islam as sinful.
Malawian-born Mr Aziz, who owns a property portfolio of over £2billion and bought the Trocadero itself for more than £220million in 2005, is founding the mosque through his charitable arm, the Aziz Foundation.
Built in 1896, the Trocadero is one of central London’s most famous entertainment complexes and also features an 11-storey, 490-room hotel called the Zedwell.
The building closed in 1965, ending its nearly seven-decade life as a restaurant.
It then reopened as an exhibition space in 1984, keeping its famed baroque façade, before arcade-style attractions were added in 1996.
Sponsorship from Pepsi and Sega helped the centre grow substantially through the late 1990s.
By 1997, the Trocadero was home to the UK’s first 3D IMAX cinema.
Visitor numbers did not grow in step with the investment, however, and Sega backed away from sponsorship in 1999.
Segaworld was rebranded as Funland, the name it kept until it closed in 2011.
Five years after Pepsi stepped back from the Trocadero, Asif Aziz’s property company Criterion Capital bought up the building and shared plans to redevelop it.
Westminster Council approved the decision in 2012 but the Trocadero never again reached the same heights.
An artist’s impression of the proposed mosque’s upper basement floor
Sarah Donahue, a dangerous sports performer, stunt woman and television presenter, launching the James Bond store by abseiling into in the Trocadero Centre in Piccadilly, London
Customers enjoy some of the amenities at the launch of Segaworld at The Trocadero in 1996
Comet, an elephant from Chessington Zoo spends the weekend as a waiter at the Trocadero Restaurant in Piccadilly Circus, London, on 30 December 1938
In 2020, plans were finally submitted to turn the basement into a mosque, which were withdrawn the first time around.
Now, the Aziz Foundation said the mosque will serve Muslims who work in the area, as well as those visiting London as tourists.
Mr Aziz was described as Britain’s ‘meanest landlord’ at the height of the Covid lockdowns after threatening West End tenants, including chains like Caffe Concerto, with winding-up petitions if they did not pay their rent on time.
In 2017, the tycoon argued at the High Court that his estranged wife was not entitled to his then estimated £1.1billion fortune as they faked a marriage certificate in Malawi in order to bring an adopted child to the UK.
They couple reached an out-of-court settlement shortly afterwards.
