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© Mrs Darshan Saffery
IoE Number:
477667
Location:
FREEMASONS HALL, GREAT QUEEN STREET (south east side)
CAMDEN TOWN, CAMDEN, GREATER LONDON
Photographer:
Mrs Darshan Saffery
Date Photographed:
30 August 2004
Date listed:
09 March 1982
Date of last amendment:
09 March 1982
Grade
II*
The Images of England website consists of images of listed buildings based on the statutory list as it was in 2001 and does not incorporate subsequent amendments to the list. For the statutory list and information on the current listed status of individual buildings please go to The National Heritage List for England.
CAMDEN
TQ3081SW GREAT QUEEN STREET
798-1/105/680 (South East side)
09/03/82 Freemasons' Hall
GV II*
Central headquarters of English Freemasonry. 1927-33. By HV
Ashley and Winton Newman, whose ingenious fitting of the plan
to the irregular polygonal site won them the commission as the
result of a competition. Steel frame construction faced with
Portland stone. Massive building in stripped Classical style.
Long facades (with slightly projecting entrance bays)
emphasised by string courses and heavy cornice above 1st
floor. 2 attics stepped above, culminating across the west
angle in the corner tower, which echoes the form of the Temple
entrance beneath, flanked by 2 giant fluted columns in antis.
This defines the diagonal axis along which the Temple itself
lies, as well as its associated processional access route.
Metal-framed windows. Decorative lamp brackets.
INTERIOR: principal halls, meeting rooms and staircases all
marble lined, richly detailed but austere neo-Grecian in
pattern. Set on diagonal axis. Grand entrance hall and museum
collection on ground floor. The principal rooms on the first
floor, with Grand Temple, Grand Officers' rooms, library and
reading room. Grand Temple of double height with gallery, dias
and organ. Walls lined with Ashburton and Botticino marbles,
surmounted by cove decorated with mosaics, coffered and
decorated ceiling. Bronze doors in neo-Egyptian style by
Walter and Donald Gilbert. Boardroom panelled in hardwood, and
with stained glass. Fine bronze and wrought-iron work
throughout the building.
HISTORICAL NOTE: built as the "Masonic Peace Memorial
Building" and a memorial to Freemasons killed in World War I.