Radha Krishna Temple (ISKCON London)

Founded in 1968 at 7 Bury Place, near the British Museum, this was the first ISKCON temple established in Europe, opened not long after the movement’s 1966 founding in New York. Its early community became closely associated with the 1969 recording “Hare Krishna Mantra,” produced by George Harrison and performed by London devotees, which reached the UK singles chart top ten — an early, high-profile introduction of Krishna consciousness to a wide Western public. The London temple predates the 1973 founding of Bhaktivedanta Manor (also covered in this directory), which became the UK’s larger suburban center while this original city-center congregation continued its own active life.

Following a legal dispute over the Bury Place lease, the temple relocated in 1979 to 10 Soho Street, just off Soho Square, where it has operated ever since as ISKCON London, home to deities known as Radha-Londonishvara. George Harrison remained closely involved with the community through this period. In recent years ISKCON has reacquired the original 7 Bury Place building, now preserved separately as a heritage site described as “the birthplace of Krishna Consciousness in London,” while Soho Street remains the congregation’s active place of daily worship.