Sassoon Mausoleum
{{Short description|Former tomb, now a music venue, in Brighton, England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2019}}
The Sassoon Mausoleum is the former grave of Sir Albert Sassoon and other members of his family, including Sir Edward Sassoon, 2nd Baronet, of Kensington Gore. It stands at 83 St. George's Road in Brighton, England. The single-storey building, which is Grade II listed,{{NHLE|num=1380706|desc=The Hanbury Arms Public House The Sassoon Mausoleum|date = 13 October 1952|access-date=14 February 2021}} has since served as a furniture depository and an air-raid shelter, and since being purchased by a brewery in 1949 has remained a pub or bar.
History
File:Albert Sassoon.jpg, 16 August 1879]]
Albert Abdullah David Sassoon was born in Baghdad in 1818 to a prominent, Sephardic Jewish family. After many years spent managing the family's banking and merchant shipping business in Bombay, India, he retired to England where he was created a baronet.{{London Gazette |issue=26019 |date= 31 January 1890 |page=545 }} He died in Brighton in 1896.
The mausoleum was built in 1892 as a wing of the family home located at 1 Eastern Terrace. The Sassoons are known to have received many distinguished visitors, including Edward VII twice, while he was Prince of Wales.Antony Dale, Fashionable Brighton, 1820–1860, Taylor & Francis, 1967, p. 167 The house no longer survives{{why?|date=February 2024}}. In 1933 the remains of the Sassoon family were removed and reburied at the Liberal Jewish Cemetery, Willesden in London{{why?|date=February 2024}}.Sharman Kadish, Jewish Heritage in England: An Architectural Guide, English Heritage, 2006, pp. 77–8Peter Stansky, Sassoon: the worlds of Philip and Sybil, Yale University Press, 2003, p. 16
The former mausoleum was for a time a furniture depository.{{cite news|url=https://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F30613F7385D13728DDDA10A94D0405B8988F1D3|title=Baronet's Tomb to Be Saloon|work=New York Times|access-date=13 November 2018}} During World War II it was used as an air raid shelter during fierce bombings. In 1949 it was purchased by a brewery for use as a pub – The Bombay Bar. In 2001 the mausoleum housed the Brighton Arms pub.Lynn F. Pearson, Mausoleums, Osprey Publishing, 2001, p. 29. In 2003 it was bought and the name changed to "The Hanbury Club".
In 2006 the mausoleum, which is located in the Kemptown neighbourhood of Brighton, underwent a £60,000 refurbishment. The new decor was intended to evoke the supper clubs of the 1920s and 1930s, and the venue featured live performances of contemporary music.{{cite web|url=http://www.carling.com/beerfinder/venue_details/916|title=- Carling|website=www.carling.com|access-date=13 November 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/clubs/the-hanbury-club-review-26087.html|title=London For Londoners|website=www.viewlondon.co.uk|access-date=13 November 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://www.visitbrighton.com/site/tourist-information/news/news-archive/2009/1/9/hanbury-club-wins-bar-award-a59|title=Visit Brighton – The Official Brighton and Hove Tourist Information Site|website=www.visitbrighton.com|access-date=13 November 2018}} In 2011 the mausoleum reopened as Proud Cabaret Brighton.
Architecture
The mausoleum is a single-storey building notable for its "flamboyant" trumpet-shaped, Indo-Saracenic dome.{{cite web|url=http://www.buildingopinions.com/Archive/H/hanburyclub.html|title=Hanbury Club|website=www.buildingopinions.com|access-date=13 November 2018}} The copper dome was originally covered in gold leaf. The Indo-Saracenic theme is carried out in lotus-leaf crenellations along the parapet and the lobed arches of the front door. The colourful "Bollywood" ceiling murals were applied by a later owner and are not original to the mausoleum.
The circle of pointed horseshoe arch windows on the drum of the dome were restored in the early 21st century.
The mausoleum, now a Grade II listed building, was designed as an enlarged replica of the marble mausoleum in the courtyard of the Ohel David Synagogue at Poona where Sassoon's father, David Sassoon, was buried.Roth, Cecil (1941). The Sassoon Dynasty, R. Hale Ltd, p. 165.The Jewish Traveller: Bombay, Rahel Musleah, February 2000 Vol. 81 No. 6 [http://www.hadassah.org/news/content/per_hadassah/archive/2000/Feb/travel.htm]
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline|Sassoon Mausoleum, Brighton}}
- [http://brightoncabaret.com Proud Cabaret Brighton]
- [http://www.buildingopinions.com/Archive/H/hanburyclub.html Robert Stuart Nemeth's Building Opinions]
{{Coord|50.8178|-0.1189|type:landmark_region:GB|display=title}}
{{B&H Buildings}}
Category:1892 establishments in England
Category:Air raid shelters in the United Kingdom
Category:Burials at Liberal Jewish Cemetery, Willesden
Category:Grade II listed buildings in Brighton and Hove
Category:Jews and Judaism in England
Category:Mausoleums in England