London's Freemasons Hall Forms Promotional Organization to Market Its Unique Venue

by Christopher Hodapp

If you've watched British television shows over the last 40 years or so that are set anywhere from the 1930s to modern day, I'll guarantee you've seen scenes shot in and around the United Grand Lodge of England's London headquarters, Freemasons Hall, at 60 Great Queen Street, just up the street from Covent Garden. This magnificent art deco masterpiece was completed in 1933 and has a seemingly endless number of interior rooms for the grand lodge, individual Masonic lodges, private meetings and other gathering places like their museum and the Lechworth's Masonic supply shop. Every room has its own distinct style, and it's been used in hundreds of TV episodes and feature films, to say nothing of weddings, fashion, industrial, and art shows, concerts, and all kinds of other specialty events.

The building's trustees have now gone into partnership with a local promotions company and formed a special organization specifically to market the building's unique features for more of these kinds of uses. From the Travel and Tour World website:

London’s historic Freemasons’ Hall has unveiled 60 Great Queen Street as the vibrant new identity for its commercial event offerings. This transformation coincides with Smart Group, the parent company of Moving Venue, expanding its role at the venue. Having secured exclusive catering rights in July 2024, Smart Group now assumes full responsibility for event sales and marketing at this prestigious Covent Garden landmark.

With the launch of 60 Great Queen Street, Smart Group is introducing an array of newly available spaces within the Grade II listed* building, offering an exclusive opportunity for corporate and private events in an iconic setting.

 

Designed to accommodate a diverse range of gatherings, from corporate conferences and product launches to high-end weddings and fashion showcases, 60 Great Queen Street blends architectural grandeur with cutting-edge event design. Collaborating with top-tier industry suppliers, the venue delivers bespoke, immersive experiences tailored to the needs of meetings, weddings, and private celebrations.

Greg Lawson, CEO of Smart Group, said: “Having delivered Christmas parties at Freemasons’ Hall since 2017 and holding the exclusive catering contract since July 2024, we are delighted to embark on the latest phase of our partnership with the United Grand Lodge of England. This is an exciting time of commercial growth for us, as we work with Freemasons’ Hall to enhance the market position for 60 Great Queen Street with our experience of leading sales and marketing activity across our various brands...

Admittedly, London's Freemasons Hall is one of the top 10 greatest Masonic buildings in the world, and they've got plenty to promote. But nearly every grand lodge in the U.S. has one or more incredible buildings with unique spaces that should be promoted to the general public for events. We have lodge rooms, theaters, dining halls, libraries, and other spaces not found anywhere else. Our forebears who built these incredible temples were proud of them and intended them to be part of our communities from the very start. For the most part, Masons aren't very good at building management or promoting our temples as venues. Partnerships with a local promotions company can be a winning strategy for us.

Grand Lodges of England and Scotland Issue Statements and Directives Over Queen's Mourning Period

by Christopher Hodapp

Following the death of Her Majesty The Queen, the United Grand Lodge of England has issued a statement to the press (photo above - click it to enlarge).

The UGLE's Metropolitan Grand Lodge in London issued the following directives to their members:

Brethren & Companions,

Following the death of Her Majesty on 8 September, the following measures will apply:

There will be a period of Masonic mourning coinciding with the period of national mourning, and black ties will be worn at all Craft and Royal Arch meetings held during that period. No black rosettes will be worn.

There will be no suspension of Masonic meetings during the period.

The summons for the first meeting of each Lodge or Chapter sent out from today should be printed in black. At the meeting, immediately after the opening (and the reading of any necessary dispensation), a short period of silence should be observed.

The first toast at dinner is now The King and the Craft / The King and Royal Arch Masonry

The Grand Lodge of Scotland has issued the following statement Friday morning:

Dear Sir and Brother

I am writing to you following the passing of Her Majesty The Queen. Our thoughts and prayers are with The Royal Family at this sad time.
I wish to inform you that a period of national mourning has now commenced and will continue until the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. The funeral, I understand, will take place on Monday 19 September 2022.

As a mark of respect the Grand Master Mason has directed that all Masonic activity will cease during this period of national mourning.
Further details will be circulated on Friday 9 September 2022.

Yours Sincerely and Fraternally,
William M S Semple
Grand Secretary
Grand Lodge of Antient Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland

Video: UGLE Modernizing Freemasonry and Seeking New Members

by Christopher Hodapp

The Daily Mail posted a very positive video story on Thursday by reporter Jess King about the United Grand Lodge of England. Grand Secretary David Staples speaks about their efforts to seek new, younger members. Also featured are three young Brethren speaking about their own reasons for joining.

Lechworth's Masonic Shop Remodeled in London's Freemasons' Hall

by Christopher Hodapp

The United Grand Lodge of England's Facebook page announced this week the remodeling of their Masonic shop inside of Freemasons' Hall on London's Great Queen Street.

For those of us whose only interaction with a Masonic merchant is over a folding table in a darkened convention lobby, these photos may engender a case of acute retailer envy. I think most of us can agree that this is exactly the way a shop dedicated to the world's oldest and most storied gentlemen's organization SHOULD look. 

Of course, the architectural surroundings do help.

The shop will officially reopen Thursday, December 3rd.

For those unable to hop a plane or train for London anytime soon, you can shop Letchworth's wide range of books, clothing, regalia, jewelry and other wares online at www.letchworthshop.co.uk

Canonbury Masonic Research Centre Conference: Anti-Masonry 10/30-31

London's Canonbury Masonic Research Centre is pleased to announce that tickets for its twelfth annual conference, which this year is on the theme of ‘Anti-Masonry’, are now available.

Tickets for the conference are £100. Price includes entrance to the film screening of the film Les Forces Occultes during the evening of Friday 29 October at University College London and a wine reception, as well as two buffet luncheons over the conference weekend. Tickets for the Saturday evening conference dinner are an additional £40.

The film Les Forces Occultes was made in 1943 by two "former Masons", Jean Marques-Riviere and Jean Mamy. Both men were Vichey supporters and collaborated with the Nazis to produce anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic propaganda. When the war ended, Mamy was sentenced to death for his work with the Gestapo, and was shot in March 1949. Marques-Riviere escaped prosecution, and was condemned to death in absentia. He died in 2000.

The following lectures are scheduled to be presented at the conference:

• Keynote lecture: Protocols of the Elders of Zion Professor Michael Hagemeister, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich

• Anti-masonry and masonic transnationalism: a complex interplay
Dr. Joachim Berger, Institute of European History, Mainz

• Blaming the Great War on the masons' entente: Friedrich Wichtl, 1872-1921
Dr. Reinhard Markner, Berlin

• The anti-masonic writings of General Erich Ludendorff
Jimmy Koppen, Free University of Brussels

• Anti-masonry as political protest: Fascist attitudes to Freemasonry in interwar Romania
Roland Clark, University of Pittsburgh

• Keynote lecture: Franco's persecution of Freemasonry
Professor José Antonio Ferrer Benimeli, University of Zaragoza

• 'Anti-masonry' in nineteenth-century Ottoman Lebanon: an offensive against Anglo-Saxon and protestant missionaries?
Saïd Chaaya, L'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes/Sorbonne

• Anti-masonry among the Ottomans and in contemporary Turkey
Professor Thierry Zarcone, CNRS, Paris

• Trends of anti-masonry in Eastern Orthodox cultures
Dr. Yuri Stoyanov, Research Fellow, SOAS, University of London

• 'The Devil's sons': one century of anti-masonry in the Arab world
Stephan Schmid, American University of Beirut

• Keynote lecture: Professor John Robison (1739-1805)
Professor Andrew Prescott, Hatii, University of Glasgow

• The reception of anti-masonry in the eighteenth-century English press
Dr. Róbert Péter, Senior Assistant Professor, University of Szeged

• Barruel's conspiracy theory - a theoretical approach
Claus Oberhauser, University of Innsbruck

• A Swedish diplomat's recently deciphered perspective on the Unlawful Societies Act of 1799
Dr. Andreas Önnerfors, University of Sheffield

• The voice of Morgan's blood cries from the ground': reading American anti-masonry through anti-masonic almanacs, 1827-1837
Jeff Croteau, MA MLS, National Heritage Museum, Lexington, Massachusetts

• Keynote lecture: War on the Freemasons: the fate of Nazi and Soviet seized books and archives
Dr. Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

• Anti-masonic thought in France: the example of Bernard Faÿ
Jen Farrar, University of Sheffield

• Visual evidence used by Franco's Police in the persecution of Spanish Freemasons Dr. Sylvia Hottinger, Carlos III University, Madrid

• Stolen truth or truth stolen?
Dr. Hans Kummerer, Quatuor Coronati Research Lodge, Austria

• The ongoing restitution of the Norwegian masonic library and archives
Helge Bjørn Horrisland, Norwegian Order of Freemasons

For further information please contact conference organiser, Matthew Scanlan, Tel: 020 7226 6256 Email: conference@canonbury.ac.uk Website: http://www.canonbury.ac.uk

Extraordinary Gentlemen of the Connaught Club

In 2007, London's Metropolitan Grand Lodge (a grouping of UGLE lodges that meet in the geographic area of London) held a special reception of Masons under the age of 35. Sixty or so such brethren attended, and it was such a success that a club was created to serve such men—the Connaught Club.

According to their website,

"The Purpose of the Connaught Club is to give young Freemasons in London a means to meet and socialise with like-minded people of similar ages within masonry, to attempt to bridge the large geographic area that constitutes London and the diversity of its lodges.

"The Connaught Club will also act as a representative body for the views of these Freemasons, passing those views on to Metropolitan Grand Lodge, via the appropriate channels as required.

"The Club aims to encourage & support participation in our Lodges and Freemasonry in general, openness about our membership and the aims, and relations of the Craft, particularly with how it relates to modern society and the younger generations."

Membership of the club is open to any Freemason under the age of 34 whose Lodge or Chapter is under Metropolitan Grand Lodge or who lives or works within London. Membership is £25 (around US$40). Their Christmas meal this year will be at London's posh Carlton Club.


Oh, to be 34. And living in London. With a better exchange rate.

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UPDATE: A less publicized organization was started at the same time in London as the Connaught Club. This one is for Freemasons OVER the age of 34, who reside in the jurisdiction of the city's Metropolitan Grand Lodge, and its annual membership cost is just £10.

It is called The Kent Club, and its website can be seen here.