Page 43 - An account of the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. 1777 to 2012UGLE

Lodge of the Nine Muses 43

1969-1970 Three meetings only at Great Western Hotel, Paddington on
Friday 12 September, 7 November & 2 January 1970.
1970-1979 Bakers’ Hall, Harp Lane E.C.3 18
1979 – Mark Masons Hall, 63 St. James’s Street
During World War II the Lodge met at Grosvenor House and later at the
Piccadilly Hotel, moving then to Whitehall Court where the Lodge room was
in the basement at the bottom of a narrow winding staircase. Various clubs also
were housed in the building and, as Dickie Thornton was a member of the
‘Golfers’, the evening there often adjourned late into the night.
The building was bought by Charles Clore and perhaps the limited accessibility
was one factor in the decision taken by the new owners to close the Masonic
room and King Charles II dining suite. This precipitated an unscheduled move
to the Great Western Hotel adjoining Paddington Station. This was uncongenial
with split accommodation for meeting and dining and it took three meetings
before the Lodge was able to find a suitable alternative at the Bakers’ Hall, Harp
Lane in the City. Although on ‘strange turf’ for a ‘West End Lodge’ it continued
to meet there for nine years, where indeed it celebrated its bi-centenary.
At this time W. Bro. Leslie Froude was a senior officer in the Grand Lodge
of Mark Master Masons. Mark Grand Lodge had acquired the old Constitution
Club at 86 St James’s Street, which they were converting to a new Masonic
centre for their Order. He suggested that the Lodge might wish to consider this
an opportunity to become one of the supporting lodges for the new Masonic
Hall especially as the Bakers’ Hall would shortly be undergoing extensive
refurbishment. And some of the Lodge property was beginning to deteriorate
as a result of being stored next to the central heating.
Thus, the Lodge became a founder lodge at the new Mark Masons’ Hall.
Our chairs were recovered from Great Queen Street where they had stood
in the lobby, outside rooms 18 and 19, our candlesticks were refurbished and
these were used to help furnish the ‘Brazil’ room on the ground floor for
our first meeting here on 25 September 1979. This ‘in effect’ represented a
th
homecoming for virtually on this very site stood the ‘Thatched House Tavern’
202 years ago.

18 This is the only meeting place outside the West End.