The Gurdwara in Britain

In this article, I offer some discussion of the meaning, use and developmentof the Sikh gurdwara in Britain. The research moves beyondtypologies of the development processes of minority religious space,and traditional approaches to the identification of the heritage significanceof buildings. The focus is on the perceived meaning andvalue of the gurdwara, investigated through narrative recollectionsof their everyday use and ongoing development by gurdwara attendees.I argue that this approach is a useful way of understanding thevalue of gurdwaras at local and national scales, where meaningseither entwined with or independent of physical form may be contextspecific and difficult to reconcile with existing national frameworksof heritage significance. This research has implications for the waysin which heritage professionals, and others, approach their understandingof place and value, and the subsequent appropriate managementof built heritage.