6, St Michael'S Road

Number 6 on St Michael's Road was built as Freemasons' Hall around 1870, although it retains an Italianate style reminiscent of the 1840s, similar to the work of Charles Fowler. The building features an elegant facade made of colour-washed brick with stucco dressing, set on a basement that deepens as it descends the hill. The tall central bay has an arched window with a moulded frame and a sill supported by consoles, flanked by pairs of giant pilasters that hold up an entablature and pediment. The main hall is set back on either side and has a clerestory with small arched windows, behind lower wings that also feature arched windows, pilasters, and an entablature.

On the left side, there is a larger arch that serves as the entrance, while a secondary entrance to the basement was added in 1910, featuring a notable Michelangesque frame with rusticated piers and a swagged keystone beneath a segmental pediment. Inside, the hall has a shallow segmental plaster ceiling with coving, and the end bays have ribs carved with foliage radiating from a central circle. The central bay, also with a circle, has transverse ribs connecting to the pilasters on the side walls, which flank a projecting bay under an external pediment and a segmentally pedimented doorway opposite, both adorned with dentil cornices.

Through the doorway, there is a lobby that runs parallel to the hall, leading to a staircase down to the basement. The lobby features a pitched skylight over semi-circular ceiling ribs, and the walls were given French-style plaster panelling in 1910. Beyond the lobby is a larger second hall, also added in 1910, which has a plaster ceiling with a 4-centred section and a flat skylight in the center. The arched ribs of this ceiling are supported by elaborate corbels with console brackets and blocks featuring hanging tassels, and the walls are similarly adorned with plaster panelling.