Present paper deals with the synthesis of visible light sensitive, easily separable mesoporous magnetic titania material having Fe3O4 in the core as solar photocatalyst. Core Fe3O4 was synthesized by two different methods for comparative evaluation. Top titania layer was found to be mesoporous thus providing more active sites. Synthesized materials were characterized by UV–vis, XPS, XRD, TEM and Raman. Core Fe3O4 prepared from Fe(II) and Fe(III) salts showed higher magnetic moment having nanosized particles. On the other hand, the hydrazine method resulted in the formation of tubular iron oxide having low magnetic moment. XRD and Raman spectra support the formation of porous anatase phase on the top and below SiO2 layer properly shielded magnetic core. The final magnetic moment of 7.8 emu in case of iron oxide obtained from Fe(II) and Fe(III) salts indicates that the magnetic separation by applying an external magnetic field is easy. Nitrogen doping of top titania layer increases the visible light absorption and photocatalytic efficiency. Comparative evaluation towards the photocatalytic decomposition of para-nitrophenol and methylene blue was carried out to observe the effect of N doping. The synthesized material is found to be stable and reusable for at least five times without any marked change in the catalytic activity and magnetic moment. Synergistic effect of mesoporosity, presence of oxygen vacancy and N doping on titania facilitates the higher rate of MB and p-NP degradation under visible light.