Freemasons' Hall, London

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Freemasons' Hall in London is the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England and a meeting place for the Masonic Lodges in the London area. It is in Great Queen Street between Holborn and Covent Garden and has been a Masonic meeting place since 1775.

In 1775 the premier Grand Lodge purchased a house fronting the street, behind which was a garden and a second house. A competition was held for the design of a Grand Hall to link the two houses. The front house was the Freemasons' Tavern, the back house was to become offices and meeting rooms. The winning design was by Thomas Sandby.

The current building, the third on this site, was built between 1927 and 1933 in the art deco style to the designs of architects Henry Victor Ashley & F. Winton Newman as a memorial to the 3,225 Freemasons who died on active service in the First World War.

It is an imposing art deco building, covering two and one quarter acres. Initially known as the Masonic Peace Memorial, the name was changed to Freemasons' Hall at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. The finance to build the hall was raised by the Masonic Million Memorial Fund. This fund raised over £1 Million.

Central to the present building is the Grand Temple, meeting place for Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter and the annual meetings of a number of the Home Counties Provincial Grand Lodges. Masonic bronze doors, each weighing one and a quarter tonnes, open on to a Chamber 123 feet long, 90 feet wide and 62 feet high capable of seating 1,700. The ceiling cove is of Mosaic work and in addition to figures and symbols from Masonic ritual includes, in the corner, figures representing the four cardinal virtues - Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude and Justice - and the Arms of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (youngest son of Queen Victoria) Grand Master 1901-1939, at whose suggestion the Masonic Peace memorial was built.

Recent uses

Like Sandby's Grand Hall, the Grand Temple is also used for concerts and musical events - having excellent acoustics and clear sight-lines.

The building is used externally as a stand-in for Thames House (the home of MI5) in the TV series Spooks and the interior has been used for the film adaptation of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (2005) where Masonic Hall becomes the temple in which the Jatravartid people pray for the coming of the Great White Handkerchief. It has also been used for Agent Cody Banks 2 (2004), The Line of Beauty (TV), and Wings of a Dove (1997).

See also

• Freemasonry

External links

• History of Freemasons' Hall

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Last updated on Wednesday January 30, 2008 at 21:23:08 PST (GMT -0800)
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