Leopold Lodge - London Bound!
In January 2026 members of Leopold Lodge 1760 found themselves London bound. The reason for this small jaunt to the capital? Well, as it turns out there are actually five lodges in England that share the name of Leopold and likewise the most honourable association with HRH Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany.
HRH Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany in Masonic Regalia
One of those fine Lodges - Leopold Lodge 1571 - had made contact with us, and all the other Leopold Lodges, last year with a view to all of us attending their 150 year celebration.
Needless to say, there were quite a few of us champing at the bit to attend. After much discussion and planning, we settled on not only attending Leopold 1571’s celebration but also going to Freemasons’ Hall for a members’ tour of UGLE. This was something that a few of us going had never done before.
We all travelled down to London by train on the Thursday. Even with some of us taking slightly more convoluted routes than others, we all got down to our hotel on Drury’s Lane by late afternoon.
Leopold Lodge 1760 having a jolly old time on the train down.
With our tour of Grand Lodge scheduled for 12 noon on Friday we had Thursday evening to relax and enjoy some of the many hostelries that were very conveniently located in the immediate vicinity of our hotel.
Three of our party had brought their wives along for the trip, so they went off out for meal and drinks together. The rest of us were flying solo, so a tour of the local area was in order. This did include an early visit to Freemasons’ Hall, or rather more specifically, the Goose and Gridiron, a lovely bar/cafe within Freemasons’ Hall.
Freemasons’ Hall - London
After visiting some other establishments in the local area and finding non-liquid nourishment, we headed back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of the Leopold 1760 touring party. A throughly excellent evening was had by all!
Friday morning dawned and there may have been a couple of our number who were suffering from the night before! After breakfast and a leisurely morning, it was agreed we’d all meet up at the entrance to Freemasons’ Hall just before our booked tour.
Our tour of Freemasons’ Hall was absolutely fantastic! We were shown round by another Freemason who works for UGLE, and was originally from Brazil.
He showed us round, talked about a few notable items in the Museum and gave a great explanation of the history of UGLE and Freemasons’ Hall. He had also arranged for us to visit a few of the different temples contained within Freemasons’ Hall, all of which are fantastic to see. All this culminated in a visit to the Heart of the Building and the Grand Temple. This was truly a sight to behold! I have to say that a visit to this should be on every mason’s bucket list. It truly is spectacular.
We were also very fortunate, while we were in the Grand Temple, to hear one of the Organists practising!
After our tour and a quick visit to the shop and the Goose and Gridiron again, it was agreed that we would all meet up outside the hotel at about 4:30pm to make the journey to Mark Masons’ Hall for the main event of the trip.
Leopold Lodge 1571 - 150 Years
Once we arrived at Mark Masons’ Hall, again somewhere that most of us had never been to before, we found our bearings (it’s a bit of an expansive building on the inside) and settled in to the bar for a quick pre-meeting refreshment. There were lots of other brethren there as there was also a Mark Meeting that evening as well.
At the due time, we got ourselves ready and made our way to the main temple to find ourselves a good seat.
The lodge meeting itself was extremely interesting. After the normal opening and the usual business, the lodge was called off and the non-masonic guests were brought in to enjoy the main event. The secretary of Leopold 1571 , WBro. Tony Silver SLGR took the floor and delivered an excellent presentation on the history of HRH Prince Leopold and his involvement in Freemasonry and also the history of not only their own Lodge, but also a brief history of all the other Leopold Lodges. Their Lodge Warrant was presented to all the visitors, and we each were given a copy of a lovely booklet detailing all of the history and presentation we were now enjoying. It was clear that a lot of time and great effort had been put into this and it is a lovely keepsake that all of us took away to remember the night.
Also present were members of HRH Prince Leopold’s own mother lodge - Apollo University Lodge 357. A sizeable group of their brethren had traveled down from Oxford to attend the evening.
W.Bro Tony also proposed the idea of bringing together a Leopold Lodge Association, as a way to encourage all of the lodges with a strong link to HRH Prince Leopold, to visit each other more often and to strengthen the bonds of Brotherhood. This is an excellent idea and moves towards this are continuing as we speak.
Front cover of the Leopold Lodge 1571 celebration book
After the lodge meeting was closed, brethren and guests retired to the refectory for the Festive Board. With 65 dining, there was a very jovial and festive atmosphere. An excellent three course carvery was on the menu and, with addition of the included wine, the festivities were thoroughly enjoyed by all. Toasts followed as always. We had been asked to respond on behalf of the visitors. W.Bro Doug and our WM W.Bro Ben gave an excellent response, and presented the WM of Leopold 1571 with a bottle of Filey Bay Whisky.
The WM of Leopold 1571 - W.Bro Cailol, received our gift most graciously and reaffirmed the idea that was floated earlier in the evening of forming a Leopold Lodge Association to encourage all of the lodges associated with HRH Prince Leopold to visit each other regularly. He also mused that visiting us up in Scarborough during the summer would be a nice little jaunt out for them. At the moment we are expecting to enjoy their company at our July meeting.
Warm and fraternal farewells were said and Leopold 1760 made our way back to our hotel. After which some of our number embarked on a further tour of the local area, which proved to be a late one for those that dared tag along!
All in all, our trip down to London and Leopold Lodge 1571 was absolutely fantastic! It is something that we are definitely looking forward to repeating in the future with maybe some visits to the other Leopold Lodges as well!
