In 2010, AYA embarked on a project, Muslim Heritage in Croydon: The Tale of Croydon Mosque. After noticing that there were very little archives of and about the local Muslims community in Croydon Mobeen Butt approached the Museum of Croydon and the Local Studies Library and Archives Service to see if they would support a project that would collect material on the Muslim community in Croydon. This partnership successfully secured a ‘Your Heritage’ grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund in December 2010.

The Muslim Heritage in Croydon project took over a thousand photographs, recorded 20 oral histories, and collected over 200 documents, photographs and memorabilia. Over 60 volunteers gave in excess of 2,000 hours of their time to help the project.

The project used cutting-edge technologies like augmented reality and computer gaming to engage new audiences to heritage. The exhibition also included touch screens that displayed photographs, architectural plans, newspaper articles and gave access to oral histories.

On Friday 17th February 2012, Mobeen handed the Mayor of Croydon, Councillor Graham Bass, a box labelled ‘For Archiving’. It contained over 300 documents, newspaper articles and photographs relating to over 40 years of the Muslim community in Croydon.

Our Tale of Croydon Mosque exhibition at the Museum of Croydon was visited by over 6,000 visitors.

http://www.muslimheritageincroydon.org.uk/
http://www.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/Past-Croydon-Mosque-celebrated
http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/
http://www.museumofcroydon.com/