The Kings Cross Lodge was consecrated as Lodge No. 1732 on the Register of the Grand Lodge of England on Wednesday, 30th January 1878 at the Metropolitan Club, 269 Pentonville Road, London.

The Lodge was sponsored in 1877 by the Bedford Lodge No. 157 and by the Earl of Carnarvon Lodge No. 1642. The signatories to the petition by the Earl of Carnarvon Lodge (the Worshipful Master, Senior and Junior Wardens) were all founder members of that Lodge, which celebrated its own centenary in 1976. The Bedford Lodge was consecrated in 1766 and thus celebrated its bi-centenary in 1966.

The consecration meeting of the Kings Cross Lodge was attended by nine founder members (all members of the Bedford Lodge) and by twenty-two visitors, many of whom were evidently members of both petitioning Lodges, including all the signatories to the petition. The first six Masters of the Kings Cross Lodge (from 1878 to 1883) were all members of the Bedford Lodge and two of them (Wor. Bro. W. M. Stiles and Wor. Bro. L. Solomon) occupied the Master’s Chair for a second term of office in 1880 and 1894 respectively.

Within two years of its consecration, the Kings Cross Lodge trans- ferred from the Metropolitan Club, Pentonville Road to Anderton’s Hotel, Fleet Street where it held its regular meetings and festive board until March 1922. It then changed its venue to the Criterion Restaurant, Piccadilly Circus until October 1941 before finally moving to Free- masons Hall on 10th November 1941.

Although history is self perpetuating, this booklet commemorating the first 100 years of the life of the Kings Cross Lodge refers primarily and perhaps somewhat nostalgically, to the earlier years of its existence, to the background which attached to the Kings Cross district of London in 1878 and to the vocations and life style of some of the men who became its early members. That background and its associations are still to be found in the Kings Cross Lodge in 1978.
In compiling this booklet, I wish to acknowledge the valuable research into the origins of the Kings Cross area by Wor. Bro. L. D. Allard L.G.R.

P. J. TOMLIN