Freemasons’ Hall in Great Queen Street, London, has been described as ‘one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture anywhere in London’. Its history and the account of previous halls on the site have been documented in The Hall in the Garden, compiled by the staff of the Library and Museum of Freemasonry and published in 2006. Freemasonry Today went behind the scenes to look at the way the building is maintained and developed under the Grand Superintendent of Works, formerly John Edgcumbe.
     Caring for a structure central to the organisation, the image and the aspirations of all Freemasons under the United Grand Lodge of England, is no easy task. Freemasons’ Hall houses the administrative personnel from the Grand Secretary downwards, the four charities, Metropolitan Grand Lodge of London, the Library and Museum, the Grand Temple and twenty-seven temples as well as committee and audit rooms.
     John takes it all in his stride. ‘My basic job is looking after Freemasons’ Hall itself, together with the investment properties around it, the management of those investments and the day-to-day running.’
     A lot of large-scale building works have been going on over the past few years. ‘After the asbestos removal programme which cost £3 million, the first big project was moving the charities from their previous premises on the other side of Great Queen Street into the lower ground floor. We also had to move the archives for the library and the locker rooms had to be changed; we put in new lockers because we had health and safety concerns about the old locker system.’
     Creating the space on the lower ground floor was not that straightforward. ‘To do this, we had a series of pre-contract works. We had to have a new electricity sub-station installed to increase the power supply. We needed that anyway as we were running short and occasionally getting everything disappearing all of a sudden but with 100 more staff coming in with 100 more computers and the rest if it, demand was going to go up quite substantially.
     ‘So we had to get our electricity supplier to put that in which was a very tortuous business including planning consent because the entrance that they needed for the second substation meant a new door on the Wild Street front. Camden Council and English Heritage had to approve that. Another problem we had to address was that just before the war they were very concerned to protect the records so they built a series of rooms made of reinforced concrete; all that had to be removed. That work was extremely noisy as sound carries through a steelframed building.’
     Were there not some misgivings on the part of the charities and Metropolitan Grand Lodge about the move from their previous premises? ‘Yes, inevitably the charities had had their own front door and their own telephone numbers and I think there was concern that they would lose their identity. Strangely, it seems to have worked the opposite way. They’ve got a much better identity now than they had before. One reception instead of four, savings on telephone and other costs, means that more of what we give to charity goes to charitable purposes.’
     John is passionate about the building itself and clearly has an intimate knowledge of the structure. ‘It’s a slightly odd building. You would expect the structure to be consistent throughout but it’s got cranked in different directions to accommodate things like the Sussex Corridor and committee rooms. Upstairs the corridors are nowhere near where the corridors are lower down. One floor is a bit offset from the floor below it which means that when they built it the steelwork had to be quite substantial.
     ‘The other problem is that the steelwork in 1933 was not protected and is now corroding; throughout the building we have patches of what’s called Regent Street disease. The whole of Regent Street in London was built in the 1920s and 1930s using steel frames on stone corbels but as water penetrates the stonework it corrodes the weakest point which is where the steel is resting, so the end of the beam tends to curve and slides out across the corbel and pushes the wall out. You have to repair in small patches the ends of the steel and coat them so they don’t corrode any further.
     ‘We have also had to rebuild the lifts. The old lifts were 110 volts DC. We couldn’t get parts for them and we were struggling to keep them running. So we’re changing all the lifts to 240 volts AC so that we can get modern gear in them.
     ‘Another important part of what we’ve been doing is replacing the old fire escapes with the bridges you can see over the courtyard. English Heritage liked the concept of the Square and Compasses design, they thought it was appropriate to the building. At the same time it has hugely improved the courtyard. The old fire escapes were monstrous structures standing out in the courtyard and now that they’re gone, it’s been made into a rather pleasant garden, a place for the staff to eat at lunchtime if they wish to.
     ‘In addition to all that there are a lot of minor jobs. The sound system has been a bit of a problem in the Grand Temple so we’ve put a new system in. Then there is constant reupholstery. It’s a gradual programme in collaboration with the embroidery department who have been working with our upholsterers to create a much better image. There are 1400-odd seats in the Grand Temple apart from the twenty-seven other temples.’
     John is keenly aware that he is answerable to all Freemasons under United Grand Lodge. ‘It is Freemasons’ money that pays for it, so it is important to know what is going on in Freemasons’ Hall. We have reorganised the way in which Freemasonry is administered.’
     I asked him: ‘Some Brethren from the provinces might say, “Why should the money I pay go to improvements which only London Brethren will benefit from?”’ ‘That is not strictly true. Those who use the temples pay an appropriate fee to do so, in the same way that provincial Brethren pay for the use of their facilities. What Freemasons’ Hall is all about is being the centre of administration of the whole country from a masonic point of view and we’ve got to house and administer all of that. The charities and Metropolitan Grand Lodge pay their own way, they’re not there freeloading. We were given a beautiful building by our Brethren in the 1930s, and it’s up to us to maintain it and keep it going in the same style and spirit which they originally intended but fitted for today’s world.’
     The ‘same style and spirit’ includes not only structural work or new fire escapes or the new sound system but a myriad of apparently minor tasks. These include the sourcing of the distinctive white and blue glazed bricks used in the interior of the courtyard, which now have to be imported as they are no longer manufactured in Britain. Other matters coming under the sphere of competence of a Grand Superintendent are the upholstery, curtains and embroidery throughout the building; evidence of this is seen in some of the Wardens’ and the Masters’ chairs in some of the temples, which now have the Grand Lodge crest woven into the chair backs. It was also necessary to get rid of unsightly ducting carrying electrical and other services around the building and to provide lifts wide enough for wheelchairs in order to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act.
     John graduated as a surveyor in 1965 and went to work at British Rail for eight years at Waterloo Station with responsibility also over Charing Cross and Victoria stations. A native of the Isle of Wight, he came to Freemasonry in a lodge in which three uncles and a cousin were all members. ‘So for you Freemasonry was very much a family thing?’ I asked.
     ‘Well, I had not only family members but also people I was at school with, so for me Freemasonry was a very friendly organisation with a fundamental backing of morality. If you think about the second degree lecture: “To steer the bark of this life over the seas of passion without quitting the helm of rectitude” – it’s terrific. We travel through life and we make all sorts of mistakes along the way, but actually every now and then owning up to them and trying not to do them again and to learn from that – it’s great if you can do it.’