General description and date of structure.
The present Freemasons’ Hall and buildings connected therewith occupy the sites of two original houses and parts of two others. These were reckoning from west to east: (i.) the eastern half of Bristol House; (ii.) Rivers House; (iii.) the house on which the statue of the Queen was placed; (iv.) the western half of Conway House.
The origin of (i.) has already been described.[[274]] It was, in its turn, divided into two in 1812 or 1813,[[275]] and seems to have been demolished between 1840 and 1846.
(ii.) The house to the east of Bristol House is easily identifiable with that which is described in a deed[[276]] dated 31st July, 1641, as abutting on the west “upon another mesuage of the same building now in the occupacion of the Earle of St. Albans [i.e., Clanricarde].” The premises had a frontage of 44 feet upon Queen Street, and the ground extended southward 200 feet or “neere thereabout” to the garden of Humfrey Weld. The eastern boundary was “a new messuage where the statue of the Queenes Majestie is placed.” It is mentioned that the Countess Rivers then had tenure of the house, which had previously been in the occupation of “the ledger Embassador of the King of Spaine.” As the house is mentioned as being in existence and in fact occupied by the Spanish Ambassador on 22nd January, 1637–8,[[277]] its erection may be assigned with certainty to the year 1637.
The original house was pulled down in 1739, and on the site two houses were built fronting Great Queen Street, and a number of others on the ground behind.[[278]] In the centre of the Great Queen Street frontage was an archway leading to the premises in the rear, and known as Queen’s Court.[[279]] Whether this simply reproduced a feature of the old mansion (there were similar archways on the west side of Bristol House and the east side of Conway House), or whether it was consequent on the necessity for communication between the street and the new houses behind, is uncertain.
(iii.) It has been seen above that the next house eastwards was “a new messuage where the statue of the Queenes Majestie is placed.” This, therefore, is the house referred to in an indenture[[280]] of 20 May, 1674, as “fronting upon the streete called Queene Street, wherein is made a nichy or place for a statue to be placed in.” The property is said to contain 44 feet frontage, to extend southwards 200 feet, and to have belonged originally to Anthony Wither. It may thus be identified with the messuage and garden in St. Giles-in-the-Fields referred to as having been sold in 1637 by William Newton to Anthony Wyther,[[281]] so that in this case also 1637 was the date of erection. The statue of the Queen, which was gilt, was pulled down in 1651,[[282]] which accounts for the fact that the deed of 1674 could only record the existence of a niche, with no statue. At some time between 1702 and 1709 the premises were divided, not lengthwise but breadthwise, a passage being formed to lead from the street to that house which was in the rear. In 1774 the houses were purchased by the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons.
(iv.) The fourth house is mentioned in a deed[[283]] of 20th December, 1641, as “all that capitall messuage or tenement with one yard, one court and one garden plott, stable, coachhouses and outhouses, as they are now erected, built and inclosed with brick wall to the same belonging or therewithal now used or enjoyed, scituate and being in Queene Street ... now being in the tenure or occupation of Edward, Lord Viscount Conway and Killultagh which ... conteyneth in front towards Queene Street 88 feet ... and the said messuage, yard, court and garden plott doe extend from the said streete backward towards the south unto the garden of Humfrey Weld, Esq., 199 feet or thereabouts, scituate lying and being between the messuage, yard and garden plote of Anthony Wither, Esq., now in the tenure ... of the Lord Awbyney on the west, and the messuage of Peter Mills, bricklayer, now in the tenure of the Countess of Essex. And also all those greate gates and gateway[[284]] over which some part of Peter Mills messuage is erected, leading out of Queene Street into the courtyard and garden, with liberty of way by a dore made or to be made out of the south-east corner of the said garden in by and through a way and passage of 8 feet in breadth intended to be made by William Newton over the sewer ... and to lead into ... Princes Street.”
In 1696 the house was in a dangerous condition, and an Act of Parliament was obtained authorising its repair and letting on lease for 51 years[[285]]. The house was still in existence in May, 1743[[286]]. By November of the same year, however, it had been demolished, and on its site four houses, each 22 feet wide, had been erected, or were then in course of erection on the Great Queen Street frontage.
Having thus dealt with the history of the earlier buildings on the site, it remains to describe the various processes by which the existing premises came to be erected. We will therefore return to the purchase, in 1774, by the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, of the house on which the statue of Queen Henrietta Maria had formerly stood.
This site is now occupied by the eastern half of the main block, including the Temple. The premises (as shown on the plan and elevation Plate 22) consisted of a house facing the street and a small house at the back adjoining the garden, which was probably used subsequently as a museum. The former was let on a short lease to a Mr. Brooks, paper stainer, and the latter became the original Freemasons’ Coffee House or Tavern, a portion being fitted up as offices (with Committee Room) for the use of the Grand Lodge. The front house was in design similar to Nos. 55 and 56, except that the elevation showed a parapet, added in 1779, and the front of the ground floor storey had also been considerably altered.