Another day and another picture of the old Masonic Lodge on Edge Lane

I am so pleased that Andy Robertson has continued to follow the story of the old Masonic Lodge on Edge Lane.*

Whenever it is featured on the blog it brings forth a shed full of memories, from people who went there, worked there and played in its empty rooms after it closed down.

And that is pretty much all I want to say, other than direct you to the link which will take you to those earlier stories and Andy’s pictures.

Picture; the old Masonic Lodge on Edge Lane, June 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson

*The Masonic Hall on Edge Lane, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Masonic%20Hall%20on%20Edge%20Lane

Down on Edge Lane with the old Masonic Hall

Down on Edge Lane, February 2015

Now it has been some time since Andy Robertson wandered down Edge Lane to record the progress being made on the development of the old Masonic Hall.

Over the last few years there has been a lot of interest in the fate of the building which was once two private residences.*

And after a long period of laying empty when it was a focus for vandals, the curious and worse things began to stir just a year ago.

Down on Edge Lane, February 2014

Andy was on hand to record the start of the work here is another of his pictures as the work progresses.

And the full set of stories and historic pictures are all here on the blog.*






Pictures; down at the old Masonic Hall on Edge Lane, in 2014 and 2015, courtesy of Andy Robertson


*The Masonic Hall on Edge Lane, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Masonic%20Hall%20on%20Edge%20Lane

Just when you thought that was all there was to know about the Masonic Hall on Edge Lane

Now sometimes a story about a building just catches on.

© 2014 Peter Topping

And so it is with the Masonic Hall on Edge Lane which has featured a few times on the blog and always draws an audience.*

For most of the 1970s and into the 80s it was a place I passed by giving little thought to.

My grandfather and uncles were all masons but Dad chose to walk away from all of those secret handshakes, odd looking regalia and much else.

So Masonry was something I gave little thought to and in turn the hall on Edge Lane was just a building set back from the road which seemed quiet and deserted.

And then the Masons vacated the place and it entered an uncertain period, when according to some all the stained glass and internal features were “lifted” and it became a haunt of vandals with spray cans.

Nor did the granting of planning permission to develop the site arrest the decline.

The application was passed in 2012 but a year later my friend Adge took a series of pictures of the hall which revealed that nothing had happened.

A year on and Andy Robertson caught the moment the developers started work, and as you do I wondered about the history behind its time as a Masonic Lodge and before when it was private residences.

All of which brings me to Peter’s painting which captures a time when it was still doing the business as a home for the Masons and a place to hold functions.

Two private residences in 1907 to the east of Waltham House

Now what I particularly like about the painting is that it allows you to trace the history of the building from when it was converted from two semi detached properties which date from the late Victorian period.

These were Gildabrook which was number 10 and Westbrook which was number 12.

I can’t be sure but the conversion was later than 1911 when the two were still private residences and more likely sometime after the Great War.

What is certain is that by 1935 the site had become the hall.

And Peter’s picture perfectly reveals the additions to the left and right.

I have to say that the architect made some attempt to make the larger extension in keeping with the original two houses.

Since beginning the stories plenty of people have shared their memories of the hall as a place they had a “do” to those who lived in the property.

I guess there will be more stories to come.

*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

*The Masonic Hall on Edge Lane, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/The%20Masonic%20Hall%20on%20Edge%20L

Painting; The Masonic Hall on Edge Lane  © 2014 Peter Topping, Facebook; Paintings from Pictures, Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Map; Edge Lane from the OS map of 1907

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

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

What we are losing, ........ the old Masonic Hall on Edge Lane and a lesson in how history is not always what it appears

The Maonic Hall Edge Lane today, © Adge Lane

The building is empty, neglected and pretty much vandalised and I doubt it will survive much longer.  

It is the old Masonic Hall on Edge Lane, much photographed, much written about but I suspect little understood.

And it rather points to a simple observation that history is not always the way it appears.

Sometimes there are crossover stories which muddy the picture of the past where two different events get merged and the truth becomes distorted.

And this is one of those distortions.  When you read about the scandal of the old Masonic Hall on Edge Lane most writers fall back on the story of how it was converted from two semi detached Victorian properties and retell the history of the Masons here in Chorlton from the 1870s.

The Masonic Hall, High Lane, 1959, A.E. Landers

The Chorlton Masonic Lodge No 1387 was formed in 1872 with 20 members and for a while met in the village school room on the green, before moving to a house on High Lane opposite Acres Road.

Five years later they formed the Masonic Hall Company “for the purpose of erecting a building for Masonic purposes, club meetings, balls, soirees, concerts etc.”*

The foundation stone of the new building was laid by Dr Rains on July 27th 1878 on a site on High Lane and the building was opened on March 15th of the following year.

It was “a handsome structure of brick with stone facings in the gothic style of architecture erected at a cost of £2,300....The Directors formed a billiard club in connection with the hall, occupying the large hall on the ground floor.  

This club was opened on March 15th 1879, the subscription varying from half a guinea to one guinea. The capacity of the Billiard players is above the average and there are some steady players at a ‘rubber’.  

The Masonic Hall High Lane and Bowling Green, 1907

Much interest is shown in the competition for prizes and in measuring strength with other clubs of a similar character in the neighbourhood.”

Equally impressive would have been its bowling green which extended from the rear of the club down to what had been Row Acre and was to become the Rec.

Now I rather think that it is this building with its history dating back to 1879 which is confused with the other hall on Edge Lane.

More so because the Company was wound up in 1956 and the building, grounds and assets sold to the Chorlton Irish Association two years later, who opened their own social club in the building in 1960.

Westbrook and Gildabrook to the right of Waltham House, 1907

Which just left  that other hall just a little way down High Lane on Edge Lane.

It was converted from two semi detached properties which date from the late Victorian period.

These were Gildabrook which was number 10 and Westbrook which was number 12.

The Masonic Hall, Edge Lane, A.E. Landers, 1959

Now I can’t be sure but the conversion was later than 1911 when the two were still private residences and more likely sometime after the Great War.

What is certain is that by 1935 the site had become the hall.

The two houses  were substantial properties with ten rooms a piece, set back from the road with large gardens to the rear and like so many of our big houses became just too big to maintain.

The rest is still fairly hazy and I will need to trawl the later directories to pinpoint the moment the conversion was put in place, and which Masonic company owned the hall.

It may have been the South Manchester Freemasons who were there at the beginning of the 21st century when the place closed.

The Maonic Hall Edge Lane today, © Adge Lane

Either way it is now in a very sorry state.  It was subject to a planning application in 2012 for conversion into flats with additional properties in the rear garden.***

The plan included the demolition of the two wings which were later additions.

Even then the 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.

It may not be the historic home of the masons here in Chorlton but is still a place which merits its survival.

The Masonic Hall, Edge Lane, A.E. Landers, 1959

Pictures; the hall on Edge Lane today from the collection of Adge Lane, the Masonic Hall on High Lane by A.E. Landers, 1959 m17902, Edge Lane Hall also by A.E. Landers, 1959, m17785, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, and maps of High Lane and edge Lane from the OS map of 1907

*Ellwood, T.E, Bowling Greens, Chapter 26, History of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, South Manchester Gazette, May 15 1886

**Elwood

***Manchester City Council, Planning and Highways Committee, March 15, 2012, Application Number 096371/CC/20/2011/S1