This tutorial review highlights the research on anionic surfactant templated mesoporous silica (AMS), which employs a co-structure directing agent (CSDA) to establish the critical interaction between the surfactant head group and silica species. As the geometry of anionic surfactants can be readily tuned via the ionisation of the surfactant head group, AMS materials possess a variety of mesostructures and morphologies. Chiral mesoporous silica (CMS) and helical ribbons can be formed via the chiral packing of the surfactant. Due to the pairing effect between the CSDA and the surfactant, a regular array of the organic groups is formed based on the stoichiometry and geometric arrangement of the surfactant, which produces functionalised materials with a uniform distribution of their organic groups. Furthermore, a brief introduction to the applications and future requirements of AMS is also included. This review is addressed to researchers and students interested in diverse areas of chemistry, particularly inorganic, physical, supramolecular and materials chemistry (63 references).