Andaz Liverpool Street Hotel, London
Interesting bit of Info.
In years gone by, many London lodges, which were unable to afford their own premises, used to hire a room in a local inn/hotel/tavern for their meetings and the subsequent dinner/festive board. Such an arrangement was beneficial both to the landlord (from the increase in business on lodge nights) and to the lodge whose furniture and paraphernalia were safely stored.
From 1966 to 1988, the Grecian masonic room in the Great Eastern Hotel, built in the 1880s but known since 2008 as the Andaz Hotel <http://london.liverpoolstreet.andaz.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/>, was the meeting place of the Lion & Lamb Lodge No.129 <http://www.lionandlamb.org.uk/> according to information provided at <http://www.lionandlamb.org.uk/temple%20intro.html> together with photos at <http://www.lionandlamb.org.uk/Temple%20Thumbs.html> (No doubt this room was also regularly used by several other masonic lodges.)
A report entitled “English Masonic Lodges, Pipe Organs and National Heritage” by Andrew Pink (January 2007) <http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/2484/1/2484.pdf> mentions: “the organ by Norman and Beard Ltd of London (1912) in the lodge room known as The Greek Temple, at the Great Eastern Hotel at Liverpool Street Station, London. This imposing and highly decorated Edwardian space is Grade 1 listed and so the survival of its otherwise typically modest masonic pipe organ has been guaranteed by its being integral to the lodge room’s original design. Despite the completeness of the furniture and fittings in this lodge room it is no longer used for masonic meetings, but the instrument is intact and playable.”
Surprisingly, although this masonically decorated room is now available for hire for up-market events, it was for a while converted into a health club, before being boarded up behind a fake wall and forgotten!!!
Incidentally, early this year, the same publication “Londonist” had a report about Great Queen Street where UGLE’s main building is located <http://londonist.com/2009/01/spruce_up_for_great_queen_street.php>
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S+F,
Ashok Mahbubani
*member of Scottish & English blue/craft lodges