A walking tour will be held to educate people about the history of Muslims in an east London community.

The fourth annual Muslim History Tour of Walthamstow will be led by AbdulMaalik Tailor, the UK’s first qualified Muslim tour guide, on Sunday, February 18.

The aim of the walk, which will start in Markhouse Road and finish in Forest Road, is to raise awareness about how the Islamic community in Walthamstow has evolved since it was first established.

Muslims began to arrive in the 1950s and by the late 1960s their numbers had reached 4,000.

Mr Tailor said: “If you look at Walthamstow it’s played host to many different communities historically and there have been some parallels between the Jewish community in the 1930s when they had the Blackshirts and then the Muslims coming in the 1960s and there was the National Front and then the EDL.

“The first stop will be in Verulam Road where the first council-approved mosque was - a house mosque.

“Then we will look at how it was moved to Lea Bridge Road Mosque and we will be exploring some Jewish links. Cllr Dave Weinstein who was the first Jewish Mayor of Waltham Forest was the one who gave the approval for the mosque as he was the seventh member of the planning committee and it was three for it and three against it. And also the mosque in Queen’s Road used to be a synagogue.

“Sometimes people think it is a community that arrived recently but they have been there since the 1950s. We will look at the challenges they faced and the contributions they have made to the community.”

Anyone interested in taking part should go to Markhouse Road at 2.30pm on February 18 where the tour will meet outside Kelmscott School.

It costs £10.50 for adults, £7.50 for teenagers and £5.50 for children to take part. To buy tickets click here.