More pictures of the old Masonic Hall on Edge Lane

By the time these pictures appear on the blog much will have happened to the old Masonic Hall on Edge Lane.

Like most of us here in Chorlton I have watched as the place sat empty, neglected and increasingly under attack from vandals.*

It was subject to a planning application in 2012 but after a brief flurry of activity the site was again left alone.

Then in February Andy Roberston took an interest in the building and captured the place just as work began.

And he caught the magnificent detail of what had been two residential properties along with the clumsy addition on either side and at the rear.

When I first posted some of the pictures they attracted a lot of interest and comment including Michelle whose family lived and work there for twenty years and others who remembered receptions in the main rooms and of course those who watched its slow decline after it closed.

Andy has promised that a return series of photographs is on his to do list and it will be fascinating to chart the changes.

I shall go back and look at the plans and check just what details are to be retained and what will go.  Those old tired steel windows and doors at the rear extension will not be missed, nor the two additions on either side of the old houses.






Pictures; from the collection of Andy Robertson

*What we are losing, ........ the old Masonic Hall on Edge Lane and a lesson in how history is not always what it appears http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/what-we-are-losing-old-masonic-hall-on.html

**Manchester City Council, Planning and Highways Committee, March 15, 2012, Application Number 096371/CC/2011/S1 http://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/simpleSearchResults.do?action=firstPage