Salar Jung Memorial Hall, Woking

Salar Jung Memorial Hall, probably built around 1888-1889 to the designs of William Isaac Chambers for Dr Gottlieb Wilhelm Leitner as part of the development of the mosque complex.

MATERIALS: red brick laid in Flemish bond with stucco dressings, rendered modern extensions to the rear and concrete tile roof coverings.

PLAN: the earliest form is roughly square with projecting wings to the principal north elevation. The earliest interior plan is largely obscured due to remodelling, but had a central hall with formal rooms used as offices and meeting rooms to the left and right. Accommodation for the Imam is at the first floor. It is understood that there are self-contained flats in the modern rear extensions.

EXTERIOR: the north elevation faces a formal garden, and has the greatest embellishment in a simple Murghal style, with ogee-shaped windows to the ground floor and dome-profiled windows to the first, all with stucco dressings to the openings. At the centre is a three window-bay range, beneath a shallow hipped roof with concrete tiles, flanked by projecting, flat-roofed wings. At the centre of the ground floor is the main entrance and the original door with foiled, arched upper panel (and renewed ironmongery), above which is a foiled, arched head with the lettering ‘Sir Salar Jung Memorial House’. On either side are two ogee-arched, one-over-one sash windows with horns. Above the stucco soldier course, level with the springing of the arches, is a painted panel with semi-circular motifs. Above at the first floor is a narrow balcony with a metal balustrade pierced with geometric shapes. There are three dome-profile arched, one-over-one sash windows beneath a moulded, stucco cornice at the base of the parapet. Each wing has a pair of ogee-arched, one-over-two sash windows at the ground floor and a moulded soldier course, above which is a pair of one-over-one sash windows with wide decorative arch above. A panel between the window cill and soldier course, and the tympanum above the window, have painted semi-circular details. The side elevations have similar window arrangement but the elevations are much plainer with stucco detailing limited to the window heads.

INTERIOR: greatly remodelled, the position of the original stairs has been lost and there are no surviving fixtures, fittings, doors and joinery. The first floor and rear extensions were not inspected.