The Sassoon Mausoleum is the former grave of Sir Albert Sassoon

Albert Abdullah David Sassoon

Sir Albert Abdullah David Sassoon, 1st Baronet, KCB, CSI, , a British Indian philanthropist and merchant, was born a Jew in Baghdad, a member of a family that had lived there since the beginning of the 16th century, having been expelled from Spain in the 1490s. He was named Abdullah at birth, but...

 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

Brighton

Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

History

Albert Abdullah David Sassoon was born in Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...

 in 1818 to a prominent, Sephardic Jewish family. After many years spent managing the family's banking and merchant shipping business in Bombay, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, he retired to England where he was created a baronet

Baronet

A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...

. 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. The house no longer survives. In 1933 the remains of the Sassoon family were removed and reburied in the Willesden Jewish Cemetery

Willesden Jewish Cemetery

Willesden Jewish Cemetery is a cemetery for Jews in Beaconsfield Road, Willesden, London Borough of Brent. It opened in 1873 on a site. More properly, it is the Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery.-Notable burials:...

 in London.

The former mausoleum was for a time a furniture depository. During World War II it was used as an air raid shelter. 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. In 2003 it was bought and the name changed to "The Hanbury Club".

In 2006 the mausoleum, which is located in the fashionably Bohemian

Bohemian style

In modern usage, the term "Bohemian" is applied to people who live unconventional, usually artistic, lives. The adherents of the "Bloomsbury Group", which formed around the Stephen sisters, Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf in the early 20th century, are among the best-known examples...

  Kemptown

Kemptown

Kemptown is a small community running along the King's Cliff to Black Rock in the east of Brighton, East Sussex, England.-History:The area takes its name from Thomas Read Kemp's Kemp Town residential estate of the early 19th Century, but the one-word name now refers to an area larger than the...

 neighbourhood of Brighton, underwent a £60,000 refurbishment. The new decor is intended to evoke the supper clubs of the 1920s and 30s. The club features live performances of contemporary music.

Architecture

The mausoleum is a single storey building notable for its "flamboyant" trumpet-shaped, Indo-Saracenic

Indo-Saracenic

The Indo-Saracenic Revival was an architectural style movement by British architects in the late 19th century in British India...

 dome. 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

Horseshoe arch

The horseshoe arch, also called the Moorish arch and the Keyhole arch, is the emblematic arch of Islamic architecture. They were formerly constructed in Visigothic Spain. Horseshoe arches can take rounded, pointed or lobed form....

 windows on the drum of the dome were restored in the early 21st century.

The mausoleum was an enlarged replica of the marble mausoleum in the courtyard of the Ohel David Synagogue at Poona where Sassoon's father, David Sassoon

David Sassoon

David Sassoon was the treasurer of Baghdad between 1817 and 1829. He became the leader of the Jewish community in Bombay after Baghdadi Jews emigrated there.-Biography:...

, was buried.

It is a Grade II listed building.

External links

• http://www.thehanbury.com/
• photos http://www.buildingopinions.com/Archive/H/hanburyclub.html