Now sometimes a story about a building just catches on.
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.
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
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| © 2014 Peter Topping |
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 |
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.
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
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