The year 1980 witnessed the cult worship of Lord ayyappa being introduced in the UK and the worship was initiated by our holiness Gurusamy P Sreedharan in the abode of Lord Murugan temple located in Eastham, London. Our holiness is well loved and respected by the hindu devotees all over the UK as he continued to inspire them through his devotion, wisdom and innumerable services rendered to Swami Ayyappa. In due course it was the desire of Gurusamy to make everyone participate in the daily bhajans and he did so with the devotees gathering for the bhajans in front of Lord ayyappa idol at the temple premises. The then chief priest of the temple Siva Sri Kailai R Naganathasivam appreciated his work and gave his complete support for the induction of Mandala Thiruvizha on 26th December (Boxing Day) and to be followed every year.
It was the desire of the Gurusamy to make everyone participate in this great function rather to say, this must raise from the very grassroots. With this idea in mind, they went to every devotees and collected small amount of money to the extent of the money required for the function.
This being a first of its kind in London, UK, gave an opportunity to the local residents to meet each other under one roof in the name of Lord Ayyappa
With immense support extended to him by the temple trustees and devotees, Gurusamy conceived the idea and formed Sree Ayyappa Seva Sangam shortly. Aftermath following the revered footsteps of our holiness, devotees and certain group of people joined together and decided to conduct monthly puja on every first Saturday of the month at Kensington Primary School, London.
The objectives that steered the Ayyappa Seva Sangam is to serve the devotees who clustered in the name of swami ayyappa. In late 1990s and early 2000s the seva sangam experienced big volume of devotees. In order to accommodate them the seva sangam looked ardently to build a separate temple for Lord ayyappa near the Eastham locality, despite their hard efforts and lack of amenities they couldn’t find one near the place. Subsequently the temple was built in East Acton with grandeur and the construct was well crafted with 18 divine steps. Due to some hassles the seva sangam was left with no option rather than to vacate the place within few months and moved to the Gujarathi temple located in Harrow as other temples hadn’t allowed the ayyappa vigraham as they did already had one. Aftermath the devotees continued to conduct monthly puja both at Kensington and Harrow.
