Salero Lounge brings new lease of life to Maldon Public Hall

It is such a special, iconic building which has stood empty for far too long.

The latest occupants are Loungers UK, who have opened Salero Lounge Café Bar.

Their ‘Lounge’ brand is promoted as “a neighbourhood café/bar, combining elements of a restaurant, British pub and coffee shop culture, with home-from-home atmosphere”.

These ‘Lounges’ seem to be principally located in high streets and small town centres – hence 43-45 is their chosen location in Maldon.

The building they are using has something of an established 'atmosphere' already – a patina that has been formed, as the plaque above the door tells us, over 163 years.

That inscription, in a recessed niche, declares it to have started life as a ‘Public Hall’, “Erected AD MDCCCLX” (that is in the year 1860).

It was paid for entirely by public subscription and at the then costly sum of £3,200.

The records of the associated ‘Maldon Public Hall Company Ltd’ (of shareholders) survive and reveal that this “convenient and commodious building” was to be used for “public meetings, concerts, lectures and as a corn exchange” (in other words, a venue for merchants to meet and arrange pricing with farmers for the sale of wheat, barley and other corn crops).

Salero Lounge has opened in the building (Image: Stephen Nunn)

That commercial purpose makes it sound rather utilitarian, but its architecture is far from that.

Made out of yellow stocks, it has fine dressings of stone and white bricks, is of three storeys and with a hipped slate roof.

The façade is a real visual joy – a symmetrical three-bay range, with pedimental gable.

The cornice is of stone and there are patterns of raised crosses in brick. There are four linked windows on the second floor and three semi-circular openings on the first.

There is even an insert of coloured marble, but best of all are the arches and columns. These have been variously described as “Ruskinian”, “Gothick” and “Byzantine” – I particularly like the central column between the wide door opening.

In its day the building could accommodate up to 600 people and even had its own manager (William Digby in 1894).

It quickly became a really popular place to meet and the ‘Literary and Mechanical Institute’ (founded in 1841) installed their small museum there, along with a public library of some 1,500 books.

In 1863 the librarian was Charles Croxon and, as well as overseeing the Institute’s books, he ensured that “current London and provincial newspapers and periodicals” were available to readers.

The Institute moved out in 1886, but was replaced by a ‘Subscription Reading Room’, run by Maldon printer Richard Poole.

Many local events were held at the hall – the annual chrysanthemum show, auctions run by Spurgeons, a massive jumble sale in 1886, a performance of The Messiah in 1889, celebratory dinners, political rallies and much more besides.

Thankfully the Public Hall survived a horrendous High Street fire that took hold on January 17, 1892, and swept away some of the neighbouring buildings.

A meeting to mark the passing of Queen Victoria, in 1901, was held at what was still then called the Public Hall, but from the 1920s it changed its name to the Parish Hall and some older residents still refer to it in that way.

The date stone above the door (Image: Stephen Nunn)

Part of the front section (technically number 43) was once an ironmongers, latterly HG Leech Ltd, and separate office accommodation was variously occupied by solicitors, agricultural agents, accountants, the Labour Exchange and a coal merchant.

The whole building was taken over by the Post Office in 1980 and during the conversion I was part of a team that excavated the old floor.

As we went deeper we discovered a curious barrel-lined shaft that contained a couple of complete late 13th Century cooking pots.

The pots were put on display in a glass fronted recess in one of the internal walls. Goodness knows what happened to them when the Post Office eventually moved out.

In more recent times 43-45 has been a supermarket, but, in the scale of its history, that was relatively short-lived.

Sadly, we have become more accustomed to seeing it empty, but even during those years it continued to be an important, principal feature of our historic High Street.

Let’s see how the latest custodians of this special place manage, what will forever be, Maldon’s Victorian Public Hall.