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).
