The Paviors Lodge

The Lodge is one of the most vibrant and active parts of the Paviors community. It has supported the Worshipful Company of Paviors since its foundation in 1937. Its members contribute to every aspect of the Company’s life and help to create connections with other Liveries.

Paviors’ Lodge works according to the rules laid out by the United Grand Lodge of England and is administered by the Metropolitan Grand Lodge of London.

The Lodge, Company and City are inextricably linked in several ways. The Grand Lodge was established at a meeting held at the Goose and Gridiron inn in St. Paul’s Yard in the City of London in 1717.

Six of the founders of the Paviors Lodge were Past Masters of the Worshipful Company of Paviors, and since then, 19 further Master Paviors have been members of the Lodge. There have been other Master Paviors who have been Freemasons and visitors to Paviors Lodge, including three Lord Mayors: Sir Cullum Welch, Lord Mais and Sir Michael Bear – all Past Masters of the Guildhall Lodge.

The links go deeper still, given that there are some 22 Freemasons’ Lodges, the City Livery Lodges, related to specific Livery Companies. These range in age from Pellipar Lodge (Worshipful Companies of Merchant Taylors and Skinners), founded in 1897, to CITO Lodge (Worshipful Company of Information Technologists), founded in 1997.

In 1999, the Paviors’ Lodge started a new initiative in the City when it founded the Paviors and City Livery Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, which meets at Bakers Hall on the last Tuesdays of March, June and September.  It has been hugely successful with a membership of 70, the majority of whom are Paviors, but as other Liveries are represented, it promotes the interrelationship of the Livery movement.

At most Paviors Lodge meetings, there will be Masters of these several City Livery Lodges as honoured guests. The Master of the Paviors’ Lodge is likewise invited to the other Livery Lodges.

The link to the Paviors’ Company is celebrated at each of our meetings with the time-honoured toast of “The Worshipful Company of Paviors-may it flourish, root and branch for ever” with a reply from the Master of the Company if he or she is present.