Masonic Hall

The building is a Masonic hall, offices, and flat, constructed between 1862 and 1863. It was altered in 1866, with an early 20th-century extension. The design is by J Barton-Wilson and John Edwin Gates.

The main hall is of grey brick in English garden-wall bond, featuring an ashlar front, a moulded cornice, and a hipped slate roof with a brick stack. The extension is built of red brick in English bond, distinguished by brick quoins, an ashlar doorcase, a reset porch, and a moulded stone cornice, also with a hipped slate roof and brick corniced stacks.

The hall front is a two-storey, three-bay design set on a basement plinth. The extension is a two-storey, six-bay structure. The entrance to the extension is through a round-headed, panelled double door within a round-arched architrave and a Doric porch with a triglyph frieze, moulded cornice, and a low parapet. The hall front has rusticated clasping pilaster strips at the outer angles and the projecting central bay, supporting an entablature beneath a low parapet. Basement openings in the outer bays have ornate cast-iron grilles. The ground-floor windows are single-pane sashes in plain openings, above a sill band. The first-floor windows are similar sashes with semicircular overlights in keyed round-arched openings, also with a sill band. An eaves frieze is inscribed with the words "AUDI VIDE TACE" above each bay. The right return is articulated by rusticated pilaster strips carrying a moulded cornice, with a first-floor sill band returning from the front as a storey band. A low-relief moulding of Masonic insignia, enclosed in a raised surround, is set into the upper storey towards the front. The extension has a panelled door within a keyed, moulded stone doorcase at the left end. Its ground-floor windows are unequal sashes of six over nine panes, while the first-floor windows are twelve-pane sashes. All windows have stone sills; those on the first floor have keyed brick arches. A broad first-floor band of brick is also present.

The interior ground floor contains a library completely fitted with reused 18th-century raised and fielded panelling and a set fireplace. The Masonic Hall itself has walls articulated by marbled pilasters of the Greek Corinthian order, incorporating paintings and honour boards. The Master’s Chair is accompanied by a porch over the doors, enclosed by clustered columns. The ceiling is ornately enriched, featuring a coffered design. Lighting columns are styled as the Classical Orders. The lodge was founded as the Union Lodge on 7 July 1777 at Lockwoods Coffee House.