This building has a lot on its hands. Perhaps that's why there's a block of stone - liberated from 'Solomon's Quarries' - on the ground-floor. Ballast? Gravitas? Or just to remind you of what Mark Mason's Hall is really all about? But how un club-like the place is: clear and light (like the texture of the stone), busy but quiet; you feel you must ascend. So I took the lift to the fourth floor to speak to Chris Starnes, Assistant Grand Secretary. Chris is an erudite man whose lively mind is a crossroads - and probably a tavern - for the fascinating orders he administers. "I defected from Freemasons' Hall in 1974 and tend to look on Grand Secretaries like cabinet ministers - albeit longer-lived. The present Grand Secretary [Tim Lewis] is my fourth. At home in the Lewis household, they call me 'Humphrey'."
    Since the arrival of the second Assistant Secretary, Richard Gan, Chris Starnes deals with Mark, Royal Ark Mariner, K.T. (Knights Templar) - and the Grand Secretary. He obviously relishes being in the crow's nest of a vessel which doubles up as a port for the organisation - a very well equipped port. There are seven temples and seven dining rooms. "We have waiting-lists. If a lodge wants to move in, we offer the dates and they can decide. We offer security of tenure, which London hotels don't have any more."
    Mark Masons' Hall's vision extends well beyond the capital: "We go out of our way to make bridges between our orders and the rest of Europe. Of course we only recognise orders which have a recognised craft base. But if a craft base is no longer recognised by UGLE, so long as the side order disconnects itself from that base, then we regard them as sound on the basis that the base was recognised at the time of their joining-in." One can imagine that this kind of thing could occupy much of Chris's time - and one would be right.
    I asked him if there were advantages in going beyond the three craft degrees. "I personally believe it should be compulsory to go into Royal Arch. It was made so exciting for me when I went in - this long lost secret which you were going to find. I like the rituals; they work.
    "When I'm asked where Mark Masonry comes from, I always say you've got to go back to the Guilds and the operative masons. Some were skilled at cutting a square stone, or the art of cutting a triangle, and they were all given a little secret, and they could go to the foreman, shake him by the hand, whisper in his ear - and the foreman knew he was an expert at whatever he did, and was immediately employed as such." Chris Starnes, an open and gregarious man, clearly follows in this tradition of expertise.

The Grand Secretary

Betraying no sign of an African tan beneath his vellum face, Grand Secretary Tim Lewis, whom I next visited in an adjacent office, informed me that he'd just returned from Accra, whereupon he'd fallen off his bike and broken his collarbone - and things were piling up on his shoulders. "We've just had the auditors in. Not a good time. Brussels this weekend. Australia the following week." The Grand Secretary has had little time to stop and take stock since moving into the hotseat in June. "I begin to wonder how I stuck banking for 32 years [until October 1996, he'd been a company secretary at a major bank]. But banking's changed. It was a steady job; quite a paternal employer in those days. It's all gone out of the window. Loyalty counts for nothing."
    And Mark Masons' Hall? "The organisation is fairly traditional, but you've got to be modern as well modern legislation demands it. There's computers all over the place for the records. On the traditional side, new staff have to get used to certain ways of address in the orders. Out there they're waiting for us to make a mistake. If you call a Knight Templar Worshipful Brother instead of Eminent Knight, they pick you up straightaway."
    Modern times are challenging, but there's no sign of stress in Tim Lewis' face. Openness is about what one is, over and above what one tries to do. First clean the inside of the cup; the grail is the man. Tim Lewis is alert to fresh conditions. "Attitudes have changed. I don't think by pressurising brethren overmuch you're going to survive in the modern world.
    Attitudes to leisure have changed and, let's face it, at the end of the day we're probably a leisure industry. People do this in their spare time. On the other hand, there are people who'll try and take advantage of you if you're not strong enough."
    Did the Grand Secretary begin with a Plan, a mission-statement? "No I didn't. I didn't appreciate quite what it entailed. What I would like is to see the orders flourish. Not necessarily become very large, but for all the units in the orders to prosper. We have some that die, as well as new units. I don't subscribe to the idea that we should say 'no' to people who want a new lodge, saying to them: 'Join that one. They're dying.' The enthusiasm that a new lodge has is because they're all of a like mind, and they all want something new. They've got the momentum. It is much like life itself: things are born and things die. Similarly, there will be lodges that die no matter how hard one tries to save them."
    Another thing which is being encouraged (apart from making the times of lodge-meetings conform more closely to modern work and retirement needs) is to involve partners, wives and sweethearts. "1 think the attitude of men and women today is changing. They expect to be more involved in our leisure activities - certainly to know what it's all about. There are quite a lot of lodges where their ladies join them for dinner afterwards. There are certainly Provincial Grand Lodges and enclaves where ladies are invited to partake during the day as they did for the 275th Anniversary at Earls Court. We're going to Spain in a couple of weeks' time. Wives are asked - not that they'll be present at the meeting, but they're going on the trip - and they may have the better time!"
    Speaking of trips abroad, what happened at the K.T. Conference in Stockholm in October? "Every three years there's an international conference of Great Priories of the Knights Templar. It's for Grand Masters and Grand Vice Chancellors. All the Australian Priories were involved. Canada, Denmark, Norway, ourselves, France (Scottish Rectified Rite), Germany, Greece, Ireland, Iceland, Portugal. Scotland was there in force. Helvetia and Sweden. The CBCS [Chevaliers Bienfaisants de la Cite Sainte] were involved. We took 8 or 9 people with us on the Friday. The hotel was right on the waterfront and the Masonic Hall was the back half of it.
    "Sweden is a very different jurisdiction. Everything comes under the Grand Lodge with its eleven degrees. On the first afternoon we were given a superb tour through the temples: very elaborate and laid out for the different degrees. They were magnificent - the Third Degree Temple was out of this world!
    "The conference began in private on the Saturday morning. We discussed various matters, including Benevolence. I referred to the Ophthalmic Hospital in Jerusalem.
    The English Great Priory is very involved with that, as is the Order of St. John. I went to a seminar there recently about their problems, which for the staff are considerable. It's in East Jerusalem - most of their patients are Palestinians.
    "The Archbishop of Stockholm gave a sermon in Grand Temple on the Sunday, a service attended by the King and Queen of Sweden. The King is Protector of the Order and all the Grand Masters were presented to the King before the service. It went very well."
    Some people who might join additional degrees may be under the impression that they're going to encounter secrets. How does the Grand Secretary understand the word? "Well, there are masonic secrets. I remember a young chap in my mother lodge. He did his three degrees and then asked 'Is this it three degrees and then go through the chair?' I think he'd been expecting to find the Philosopher's Stone, or the meaning of life, or something from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Each degree has a moral lesson to impress on candidates, and it is for them to seek to improve themselves accordingly."
    So why keep 18th and 19th century chivalric revival orders going? "I think because a lot of people like it! They're attracted to the ritual. They're attracted to the colours, the formality of it. Other people are attracted to the brotherhood. Other people are attracted to the research." And what attracts the Grand Secretary? "More and more, people, I think. I began by being attracted to the ritual. Now I'm more attracted to the aspect of brotherhood, of friendship. I enjoy the ritual, the meetings: I find them fun, satisfying. And they do teach some pretty powerful lessons. They're like the old parables aren't they? You're getting across a pretty powerful moral teaching in a lot of these orders in a very powerful way."
    Tim Lewis' eyes truly lit up when he was saying this. So finally I asked him if there was a step from moral teaching to spiritual experience "Quite possibly. But not for everybody. That comes down to what you put into it, you probably get out of it. You've got to be careful about too much spirituality because then you start conflicting with religion. People say 'They're just another religion, another mystery rite'. In all the upheavals with the Church of England in recent years, we've consistently said that we are not a religion. We don't have a 'masonic god'. There is no masonic doctrine that leads to salvation."
    Perhaps there is a salvation which leads to masonic doctrine. I learned a great deal from my journey around Mark Masons' Hall. There's a lot to it in what meets the eye, and I am reminded of those intriguing words of Audiberti : "The most obscure poem is intended for everybody."
   


Mark Masons' Hall is Home to:

The Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons.
Intoduced c.1769. The word 'Mark' refers to traditions of masons' marks.

The Ancient & Honourable Fraternity of Royal Ark Mariners.
Introduced c.1790. The word 'Ark' refers to Noah's ark.

The Grand Conclave of the Order of the Secret Monitor or Brotherhood of David and Jonathan in the British Isles and Territories Overseas.
c.1875. of Dutch origin, the Conclave celebrates principles of masonic friendship based on the story of David and Jonathan.

The Grand Council of the Order of Royal & Select Masters of England and Wales and its Districts and Councils Overseas.
Introduced 1873. Refers to events surrounding the completion and subsequent history of the Jerusalem temple.

The Grand Council of the Order of the Allied Masonic Degrees.
Grand Council formed in 1879. The following degrees are worked: St Lawrence the Martyr; Knight of Constantinople; Grand Tilers of Solomon; Red Cross of Babylon; Grand High Priest.

The Grand Imperial Conclave for England, Wales and Territories Overseas of the Masonic and Military Order of the Red Cross of Constantine & the Orders of the Holy Sepulchre & of St John the Evangelist.
Introduced c.1813? The Conclave explores themes of Christian knighthood.

The Great Priory of the United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta of England and Wales and Provinces overseas.
Earliest English records: 1777. Virtues of true Christian knighthood worked in degree form.