Shree Kutch Satsang Swaminarayan Temple (London) — Attraction in London

The temple is quite clean and tidy and well organised.

You enter via Westfield Rd, near the Jet Petrol station. You walk through in or out vehicle gates or drive around to the car park. The car park is perhaps not big enough when they have some larger events.

There are staff outside the building.

Inside the building, (you have both a ladies entrance one side, men's the other,) you have shoe racks and a sink with soap.

You go into the Prayer hall, and find about 80% of people on a busy occasion sitting on the floor and 20% having the luxury of a chair. Some chairs get reserved.

Late afternoon or early evening when it is Aarti it is quite busy.

When people arrive in the prayer hall they bow, prostrate, completely lying on the floor, in front of the shrine. They do this several times then walk around the shrine area in a clockwise movement.

They then go and sit down.

At busy times a tall slim man waves his arms signalling to people to move a bit this way or that, slightly overzealous crowd control perhaps.

At Aarti there is ringing of bells, clapping and enthusiasm.

After Aarti people tend to leave, going through a couple of rituals involving a candle and some water, before being presented with a couple of bags of nuts, sweets or similar.

Recently they have held some special events where lots of people have attended, including a pipe band, the sight of the Mayor playing an instrument made of bells along with many others.

There have been performances by children, one of which involving the normal separation construction of men and women's sides being removed so women and men could be amazed at the children performing.

Upstairs the temple has a large marble floored brown door hall in which they serve food. Some people sit at tables, some on the floor, staff are very helpful although at times visitors are left standing on stairs for quite a while waiting for space in the upstairs hall.

Perhaps at times the temple is a victim of its own success with a bit of crowding and waiting as many attend.

The food is tasty. The nearby toilets very clean and tidy with hot air dryers.

People are generally respectful and patient here and the temple provides various services including youth education and summer camp type activity, as well as organising Friday night football at a local school.

The temple, Mandir , has a helpful WhatsApp group and staff are helpful...

Visited the temple today. Very well organised for Diwali and start of our new year. The creativity of the volunteers radiates through the decoration and the food display! I particularly love the 'cloud' effect in the main prayer halls! Queues are overall well planned out for minimal disruption. The reason I have knocked out two starts from my review is down to the two horrid volunteers at the main gate. Being a less frequent visitor at this particular establishment means that my family are unaware of 'invisible' rules, as expected. Whilst in the car, the car queue wasn't moving and based on previous experience, we do know that the ladies queue for the main hall is significantly longer than the queue for men. For this reason, my dad told us to hop off and carry on with our prayers. This action was met with aggression and hostility from the two gentlemen at the gate, one of whom angrily yelled at us 'who told you to get off?'. We appreciate that we made an understandable mistake but surely there's a better way to shed light on errors. They may need to refresh their understanding on how the scriptures outline teaching and treatment of fellow humans. I can see that the two gentlemen are working hard but such rough behaviour and harrasment overshadowed their goal. The other volunteers within the temple and especially in the inner car park are happier and politer by miles by saying 'Jay Swaminarayan'- a lot pleasant to the ears, and will provide a far more welcoming experience at the main gate. The lovely volunteer in the main hall kindly let me stand on the side to take pictures without disrupting the other devotees. With her approach, we had a wonderful...

Some/Many of the staff members are very rude, inconsiderate & awful human beings. Specially with recent visits - Tall Guy with glasses, modern clothing, short shaved haircut just shouts negatively & he has embarrassed me in public in front of many others when getting a plate etc. With that, the ladies in volunteering are also similar, where in instance, could be a lady dressed in sari mid 40s in charge just doesnt know how to speak and instead rather speaking neutrally, she speaks as if everyone is beneath her & rudely accuses the wrongdoings even though anyone/everyone is following the instructions well.

Used to be a place I would attend, now...