BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir London

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir
BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Location in Greater London
Name
Proper name	BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir
Geography
Coordinates	51°32′51″N 0°15′42″W / 51.54750°N 0.26167°W / 51.54750; -0.26167Coordinates: 51°32′51″N 0°15′42″W / 51.54750°N 0.26167°W / 51.54750; -0.26167
Country	United Kingdom
Locale	Neasden London, NW10
Culture
Primary deity	Swaminarayan
Architecture
Architectural styles	North Indian
History and governance
Creator	Pramukh Swami Maharaj / BAPS
Website	http://londonmandir.baps.org/

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir (also commonly known as the Neasden Temple) is a Hindu temple in Neasden, London. Built entirely using traditional methods and materials, the Swaminarayan Mandir has been described as being Britain’s first authentic Hindu temple. It was also Europe’s first traditional Hindu stone temple, as distinct from converted secular buildings. It is a part of the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) organisation and was inaugurated in 1995 by Pramukh Swami Maharaj.

The Mandir was cited in Guinness World Records 2000, as follows:

However, since 2000 it has been surpassed in size by other BAPS temples elsewhere. The mandir was built and funded entirely by the Hindu community. The entire project spanned five years although the Mandir construction itself was completed in two-and-a-half years. Building work began in August 1992. In November 1992, the temple recorded the largest concrete-pour in the UK, when 4,500 tons were put down in 24 hours to create a foundation mat 6 ft (1.8m) thick. The first stone was laid in June 1993; two years later, the building was complete.

The temple complex consists of:

The Mandir is the focal point of the complex. Designed according to the Shilpa-Shastras, a Vedic text that develops Hindu architecture to metaphorically represent the different attributes of God, it was constructed almost entirely from Indian marble, Italian marble, Sardinian granite and Bulgarian limestone. No iron or steel was used in the construction, a unique feature for a modern building in the UK.

From the conceptual design and vision of Pramukh Swami, the architect C. B. Sompura and his team created the mandir entirely from stone. It is a shikharbaddha (or pinnacled) mandir: seven tiered pinnacles topped by golden spires crowd the roofline, complemented by five ribbed domes. The temple is noted for its profusely carved cantilevered central dome, believed to be the only one in Britain that does not use steel or lead. Inside, serpentine ribbons of stone link the columns into arches, creating a sense of levitation.