The Salon
On the right of the staircase is the former card room, now called the salon. It has been radically altered, and for the better, since it was designed by Paine. It was enlarged in 1806 and altered again in 1831. In Paine’s original scheme, this room was smaller for (as can be seen on the webpage with the plan of the first floor), it was separated from the ballroom by the back stairs. In 1806, new back stairs were built at the west end of the new dining room (of which more later), to allow direct communications with the kitchens below.
The space occupied by the old back stairs was absorbed into the salon. The building of the new dining room on the west side would have deprived the salon of its windows, and so roof lighting must have become necessary. In 1831, the ceiling was raised to the same height as the dining room, which is now the council chamber. The fine rectangular roof lantern probably dates from this time. The alterations of 1831 were carried out by William Hurst (1787-1844), a native of the town, an alderman of the corporation and a one-time pupil and then partner of William Lindley, architect of the 1806 alterations.
This photograph of the salon shows the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Leonard Boden, presented by Lord Scarbrough in 1965 and another of Queen Mary, consort of King George V, painted by J St Helier Lander and purchased in 1938. Other portraits hung in this room include King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, presented by Lord Halifax in 1934.
Amongst local portraits the most notable is that of Sir Edmund Beckett of Doncaster, M P for the West Riding from 1841 to 1859 and chairman of the Great Northern Railway Company. His influence was decisive in bringing the Company’s locomotive engineering works to Doncaster in 1853 and, in doing so, changing Doncaster from a market town serving the surrounding agricultural district into an industrial town.
