The Naubat or Naqqar-Khana (‘drum house’) stands at the entrance of the palace area, and was used for playing music five times a day at propitious hours. It was also called Hathipol, as visitors dismounted from their elephants here. Faced with red stone, it is a large three-storeyed building, rectangular on plan. Carved designs on its red stone walls appear to have been originally painted with gold, while the interior was painted in other colours. Several layers of these paintings can be traced even now in the entrance chamber.

Naqqar Khana; the War Memorial Museum is presently housed in the first storey of Naqqar Khana, Red Fort

The later Mughal kings Jahandar Shah (1712-13) and Farrukhsiyar (1713-19) are said to have been murdered Naubat-Khana. The War Memorial Museum is now housed in its upper storey.