Borough of Greenwich Lodge is small but
friendly, with our members coming from a wide range of backgrounds.
In 1889, the year of its founding, Queen
Victoria reigned over the Great Britain and Benjamin Harrison was sworn in as
the 23rd President of the United States. Society in Britain was rapidly
changing, with the Womens’ Franchise Union founded by the suffragette Emmeline
Pankhurst, London dockers striking for a minimum wage of sixpence an hour and
Lord Rosebery elected as the first chairman of London County Council.
Against this backdrop, the Borough of
Greenwich lodge was consecrated in December 1889 under the sponsorship of the
Lodge of Amity No. 171, itself founded over 100 years earlier in 1784. The name
is believed to have been chosen based on the number of members from the
Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich and has close associations with the river
Thames, with many early members being watermen.
‘There are few places in England which
are more full of history and interest, situated as it is on the waterway of
London and the earliest English road, the Watling Street, which runs from Dover
to York, through your borough; it has always been from the earliest times a
place of note.’
Read by The Grand Chaplain, Rev J
Studholm Brownrigg, at our consecration meeting 1889
The consecration and all early meetings
were held at the William IV Hotel in East Greenwich, with the first Master, Sir
Thomas William Boord Bt., at the time the Member of Parliament for the old
Borough of Greenwich (the arms for which our lodge crest is taken).
The lodge crest is actually the arms of the
old Borough of Greenwich council. The latin text ‘Tempore Ultimur’ translates
as ‘make use of time’. (the arms for which our lodge crest is taken).
