Something is stirring down on Edge Lane at the old Masonic Hall

Now back in April of last year I wrote about the Masonic Hall on Edge Lane and a little bit of its history.*

It had been empty for a while was the subject of planning application from 2012 and I feared the worse for the building, concluding with the observations that the planning application was for conversion into flats with additional properties in the rear garden.**

The plan included the demolition of the two wings which were later additions and the planning report highlighted that it “is now in a poor state of repair and projects a poor image for this significant site within the conservation area.”

Sadly since then all work on the property has ceased, the stained glass windows have vanished and the building looks pretty much of an eyesore.

I hope it will not go the way of so many buildings which eventually with no one to save them and open to the elements and the vandals will disappear.

Well it seems work has reconvened and Andy Robertson was on hand to capture the start of the new development.

And I have to say Andy has revealed details of the buildings I didn’t know existed, so over the next few weeks I shall be featuring some of these pictures he took on a February day in 2014.

Not only has he caught the rear of the old hall but some of the period detail from when it was still two private residences.

I am also hoping he will wander back and take some more as the old Masonic Hall is reinvented.

No pressure then, Andy.

Pictures; from the collection of Any Robertson, February 2014

*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