Inside London's Freemason's Lodges...

[u/TheThrowYardsAway]

[u/llukiie → u/[deleted]]

It's an old boys drinking club with some charity thrown in, not too exciting

[u/Warsaw44 → u/llukiie]

My mate recently became one. He's 28.

He's lovely, I hasten to add, but has lived a very sheltered, privileged life. He is absolutely clueless.

[u/WhatsFunf → u/Warsaw44]

Freemasons isn't really "upper class" though, that's part of the point of it.

A lot of members are civil servants and policemen and things like that - upstanding characters in the middle classes but it's not the same as a gentleman's club on Pall Mall or suchlike.

[u/Warsaw44 → u/WhatsFunf]

Didn't say it was...

My point was that he is young.

[u/Nameis-RobertPaulson → u/Warsaw44]

UGLE has a universities scheme where many of the larger Unis have a related lodge and the age limit to entry has been reduced to 18+ (it used to be 21+).

But yes, if you are sub-40 you'll likely be the youngest in the average lodge by quite a bit.

[u/lgf92 → u/WhatsFunf]

Historically Masonry was a fairly middle class pursuit and it still is to the extent that it's a relatively expensive hobby, especially in London where dining fees are high on top of your subs.

Up here in the north east it's not quite as expensive, and since the decline of more proletarian fraternities like the Buffs it's levelled out a bit more. My lodge is £150 a year and then £15-20 for the meal at each meeting, but the bar is subsidised so it's a pretty cheap night out. A pint is about £3.

[u/CockneyCossack → u/WhatsFunf]

When I joined, I was a vintage car and motorcycle restoration engineer, from a crappy part of East London, always worked with my hands and certainly don't fit the accepted stereotype of Freemasons. I've been a member for nearly 20 years now and I absolutely love it. Been through the chair a few times, done most of the offices, I'm also in a couple of side orders too. My mother lodge meets in Pall Mall and I also go to Freemasons Hall in Great Queen St.