Meeting Places

The Lodge originally held its Regular meetings at the Oatlands Park Hotel, Oatlands Drive, Weybridge where the Consecration took place in October 1894.

In 1916 the Hotel was requisitioned and during the War used as a Casualty Hospital for the New Zealand Forces serving in France. Interestingly, New Zealand Avenue, at the end of Oatlands Drive, is named in memory of the New Zealanders who died here.

As a result, the Lodge was obliged to obtain temporary dispensation in January 1917 to hold meetings at the Holstein Assembly Rooms, Weybridge before moving firstly to the Parish Rooms, Church Street, Weybridge and then again 1919 to Nuttalls Restaurant, Kingston on Thames.

The Lodge moved back to the Oatlands Park Hotel for the Installation Meeting in October 1920 before relocating on a temporary basis to the newly opened Masonic Hall in Surbiton - Glenmore House. The building which was constructed in 1840 is a fine example of the architectural transition from late Georgian to the early Victorian and was one of the first substantive family homes to be built in Surbiton.

Surbiton Masonic Hall – Glenmore House

In 1923 the Lodge Committee was charged with examining the feasibility of building a Masonic Hall in Weybridge but in 1924 they reported that it had proved impossible to obtain Lodge accommodation in Weybridge concluding that;

‘a rough estimate of the probable cost of land, building and furnishings being around £6,000, the Committee reluctantly came to the conclusion that the project was not feasible at the present’.

As a result the Lodge continued to meet at Surbiton where it finally established a ‘permanent home’ and has held its Regular meetings there ever since – a tenure of over 80 years.

Originally the Lodge met on only four occasions annually; the third Tuesday in January, and the second Tuesdays in March, October and December – Installation being in October. However, in December 1899 the By-Laws were altered to add a further meeting on the second Tuesday in November and the date of the January meeting was changed from the third Tuesday to the second Tuesday in the month.

And so to this day, the Lodge continues to hold five Regular meetings on the second Tuesday in the months of October, November, January, February and March in each year at Surbiton.