IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Burnham Place, HORSHAM, RH13 5BF

Reversing the trend for places of worship becoming offices, bars or dwellings Image has returned to its original use as a house of God. Admittedly the Madina Mosque will offer an interpretation which would seem somewhat unfamiliar to the original congregation but probably far more acceptable to them than the thought of the building becoming a wine bar or solicitors' office.

In Park Terrace East, Horsham. I just took a photograph of this, in passing, as I thought it was a relatively modern office building in the make-it-look-old style so popular these days. On closer inspection it became apparent that it was once a single storey building that had been (unsympathetically) converted to two (or maybe even three) storeys: the stuccoed façade shows a pattern imitating stone blocks but this pattern is not continued in the slab between the upper and lower windows; the reveals of upper windows have an arched top but the windows themselves have a flat top suggesting a lowered ceiling (which hints at a third storey); the steel windows suggest conversion in the mid twentieth century and I'd guess that the porch was added in the late twentieth along with the brick wall at the front. A building with such tall windows suggested a place of worship. The only building used for this purpose, in this location, was the Jireh Independent Baptist Chapel (also known as the Jireh Strict Baptist Chapel). This was confirmed by cross-referencing with Henry Burstow's "Reminiscences of Horsham" http://www.folk-network.com/miscellany/burstow/burstow_6.html which places the chapel within the precincts of the old Horsham gaol. As the gaol was demolished in 1845 and the chapel consecrated in 1857 it seems highly likely that no other structure (or denomination) occupied this site in the interim. I have not determined when the chapel closed but think that the structural alteration would have been undertaken shortly thereafter. (I'll update this if I can find out more.)

The Horsham Kebab & Sal's Crafty Bits on Queen Street (A281)

Seen between Image and Park Terrace East.

One of the Image has a new tenant and its neighbour looks like it's been cleaned up prior to a new lease.

A large roadside pub.

When I saw the Union Flag chairs, they had all the hallmarks of being reproduction. However, I did not recall having previously seen any of this design. The next day, some twenty miles away, I saw another pair!

Little is known of the Queens Head in its earlier days. It first appeared in the local records as an Inn in 1793. Later entries in Horsham's historical archives show the Queens Head being tied to a brewery as far back as 1888. This same brewery was later to be renamed King & Sons in 1906 and it is today known as King & Barnes. Shortly after becoming King & Sons the brewery rebuilt the Queens Head on its original site as a pub and hotel. The work was completed in 1911 for the princely sum of £1,270.