Ionic Lodge

Jon Haddy, Secretary of RNC&USL writes:

The Hospital for retired and disabled Naval seamen was created as the Royal Hospital for Seamen, at Greenwich, on the instructions of Queen Mary II, who had been inspired by the sight of wounded sailors returning from the Battle of La Hogue in 1692.

The building, designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren between 1696 and 1712 on the site of the Palace of Placentia (Greenwich Palace and King Henry VIII's birthplace), was in use as a Hospital until 1869, when it closed. The building was then reopened, in 1873, as the training establishment, The Royal Naval College Greenwich, in collaboration with the nearby Greenwich Observatory and the Office of the Astronomer Royal.

Training was principally mathematical, with differential calculus and navigation; however, by 1897, these subjects had largely been superseded by History, Strategy and International Law, and it had become the Royal Navy's Staff College to provide advanced training for officers, replacing the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth. It continued in this role until 1998, when it ceased to be a Naval Establishment.

The United Grand Lodge of England granted a warrant to the Royal Naval College Lodge No 1593 on the 29th December 1875, and the Lodge was consecrated on the 26th February 1876 in the Queen Anne building of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. At that meeting, it was resolved that future meetings would be held in the ‘Ship Hotel’, Greenwich.

Originally constituted as a ‘Class Lodge’ for ‘Officials and Staff of the Royal Naval College and other Officers of the Royal Navy’, ‘Permanent Officials serving under the Admiralty’ was added in March of 1878 and a Lodge of Instruction was also formed. The Lodge of Instruction continued to meet within the College, courtesy of the College Captains, for the next 50 years.

Trafalgar Chapter No1593, associated with the Lodge, was founded in 1879.

Early meetings were busy with work; however, the conditions under which Naval Officers joined the Royal Naval College had changed, and the source of new members was slowly drying up and eventually led to a total cessation of recruits from the Royal Naval College. This, together with a decline in the tone of the Ship Hotel, led to a resolve, in February of 1904, to move to London and the first meeting was held at the Frascali restaurant, on Oxford Street, on 11th October that year.

The need to expand the membership base was hotly contested at the time; nonetheless, the Lodge Constitution was altered in 1905, to admit members other than Officers of the Royal Navy and Officers of the Higher Divisions of the Civil Departments of the Admiralty, and to discontinue the use of firing glasses (although this was reinstated in 2005, in Trafalgar Chapter). The regular meetings were changed from a Tuesday to a Friday in 1909, and the name of the Lodge changed by the addition of ‘…and United Service…’ to reflect the wider pool from which recruits could be selected. The Lodge originally met in December (Installation), February, April, May and October with the Chapter Meeting three times a year in November, January and March, so meetings were held each month from October to May. In 1919, the fifth meeting of the Lodge, held in May, was dropped "in pursuit of economy". Today, Trafalgar Chapter Meets on the same day, ahead of the Lodge, in October and April.

The Lodge continued to meet regularly at Frascali, up to and including the 75th anniversary on the 22nd February 1951; however, the minimum dining numbers were becoming a problem and in 1951/2 the Lodge moved to the Lyons Corner House in Oxford Street for a brief sojourn. As luck would have it, the move was a good one as Restaurant Frascali was closed and demolished in 1954. The Lodge next moved to the Mostyn Hotel at Marble Arch in 1952, and was there until 1972 when the Hotel was closed for renovations and it was once again on the move. The Lodge found a place at the Shaftsbury Hotel, in Monmouth Street, Seven Dials, and stayed there for its Centenary year. It is worth noting that, at that time, most hotels and restaurants in London with private dining had a Masonic Temple. The Shaftsbury Hotel was convenient and, although the Temple was small, it was quite adequate and enjoyed a small anteroom for dressing.

Unfortunately, in the 1970s, the areas around Seven Dials, Long Acre and Covent Garden were not as salubrious as they are today; and the bulk of the Theatres in the West end were dark. Indeed, the New London Theatre, nearby at Drury Lane and Parker Street, originally closed as the Winter Garden Theatre in 1963, and – despite renovations – did not open again until 1973, when Lloyd Webber opened with ‘Cats’. The Market at Covent Garden had moved out of the Market buildings to the New Covent Garden Market at Nine Elms (again 1973), so much of the area around Covent Garden and Long Acre had vacant lots and was rather ‘down at heel’. Thankfully, this is not the case today!

At the same time, the City was renovating Docklands and a lot of the rough sleepers had been ‘turfed out’ of the warehouses and ended up in cardboard cities around Waterloo. In an effort to clear up the rough sleepers, a lot of hotels and empty office blocks like Centre Point were used to help them off the streets. The Shaftsbury Hotel replaced a dwindling quotient of tourists with rough sleepers. As such, it was unfortunately no longer an ideal spot for Lodge meetings and dinners to follow! With the Centenary Meeting in mind, the Lodge decided that it was not a suitable venue and opted to book a Temple at Freemasons’ Hall. At the same time, the meeting was changed from the February to the April of 1976 – partly to coincide with the possibility of better weather. The Lodge never returned to the Shaftesbury and has been meeting in Freemasons’ Hall ever since. Of note, the Chapter had met in FMH since the 1950s.

The Centenary Meeting was a big success and took place in the Buckingham Room (Lodge Room 17), with a Festive Board next door in the Connaught Rooms.

Quite by chance, the 150th year meeting, held on 20th February 2026, was in the same Temple; although, on this occasion, the Festive Board was held at the Royal Air Force Club, a wonderful venue. The aviators there might have been surprised to hear the Lodge’s rousing rendition of the Lodge Song – “Spanish Ladies” – but, thankfully, it was most definitely in tune. The College and United Services’ forebears would have been proud!

Many Admiralty Departments moved to Bath after the war, and that trend continued until the Empress State Building in Earls Court finally closed, with the transfer of all the remaining units (now MoD Navy) to Bath, in 1975. This finally severed the Lodge’s recruitment within the Admiralty. However, family members, their friends and associates have populated the Lodge since then.

The last Naval connections within the Lodge were in the 1990s, with Admiral Holford and Commander Avery. The last Members of the Admiralty were Tom Dethridge and Percy Calver; and the last connection with the Royal Observatory was Robert d'Escourt Atkinson, who was Assistant to the Astronomer Royal and whose speciality was ‘time’.

Now into its 150th year, the Lodge is looking to the future as well as valuing its past; with the Catalyst Initiative of Metropolitan Grand Lodge in which it is now ‘twinned’ with the Royal Air Force Lodge No 7335. The Catalyst Initiative matches Lodges with low numbers but expertise and capacity, with a Lodge that has higher numbers and a ‘bottleneck’ to promotion, to each Lodge's advantage. This relationship has already seen some tangible benefits, with the RAF Lodge recommending the College and United Services Lodge’s latest initiate, who joined on the 150^th Anniversary Meeting. They have also asked us to pass another of their members at our next meeting.

So far, so good!

This article is part of Arena Magazine Issue 60 – Spring 2026.
Arena Magazine is the official online magazine of the London Freemasons – Metropolitan Grand Lodge and Metropolitan Grand Chapter of London.

Read more articles in Arena Issue 60 here.

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