Located
in the park grounds of the Istana Besar in Johor Bahru, this
building was built in 1858 and was once a royal audience chamber.
Balai Zaharah had a sister building, the Istana Zaharah; this
was sadly demolished many years ago as allegedly it had suffered
heavy damage during the war.
Balai Zaharah was last used in the 1980's as a religious
school. Since that time the building has been left derelict
and is in a terrible state. Park goers would use the old
structure for shelter during rain storms and wedding photographers
found the place to be very photogenic.
The flower and vines of the clove plant features in many
of the decorative elements in the building; the front iron
work gate features most prominently this. Even the cross
shaped layout of the building when looked at from above
can be seen to appear like that of a clove.
