Partick St Mary's Lodge No 117 - Tour of the building

The view from cross the street, as you can see the Lodge owns a four storey building. The first level is for the shop premises, the second and third level is the main hall or Masonic Temple and finally the fourth level is the top hall or Harmony Room.

As you can see the building as a steep stairwell with a traditional Glasgow close tenement titled walls.

Staircase leading from the main entrance

At the top of the set of stairs you will see a large window.

The First landing, with the main door into the temple.

The view from the Tyler's door. You will notice that straight away your eye is draw to the east with the two columns and the working tool illustrations on the wall.

The view from the tyler's door into the Temple

You will also notice that there are two Past Masters boards on each side.

The View of East from the north west corner of the Temple

You will now notice a third Past Master board which is on the right of the picture. The large chair in the centre of the picture is where the Right Worshipful Master of the Lodge sits.

The Right Worshipful Master's Chair or otherwise known as King Solomon's Chair, which sits in the East and where the Master controls his Lodge.

This chair has been in possession of Partick St Mary's Lodge since the early 20th century, its original origins are unknown. It is beautify carved and has seen a lot of life.

Now let us have a better look at the illustrations on the east wall. We shall start from the top left and work our way down and a cross.

At the top-left you will see seven stars; they illustrate the seven brethren who run the Lodge, the Right Worshipful Master, Two Wardens, Two Fellow crafts and Two Entered Apprentices. Under this you will see the square and compass with the letter G in the middle, "God".

A close up view of the east of the Lodge

Top-middle is the all-seeing eye, under this you will see the letter G again surrounded by a triangle and a circle. At the bottom you will see the Right Worshipful Master's Jewel - which consists of a compass, square, segment, a curiously shaped level, sun and crescent moon.

Top-right you will see the seven stars again, and under that you will see a square.

The two pillars represent the two pillars at the porch of King Solomon's Temple.

We are now looking at the Worshipful Junior Warden's chair and the south wall. Starting from the left you will see again the third Past Masters board in the middle you will see a plaque dedicated to the soldiers and brethren who died in the Great War,

Looking south at the Worshipful Junior Wardens Chair

and to the right is a second plaque, naming all the soldiers and brethren who died in the Second World War.

View of the Worshipful Senior Warden sit and the balcony

View of the Worshipful Senior Warden chair, to the right of the Senior Warden is the main display cabinet and above is the balcony.

On the North Wall of the Temple are three Past boards of other orders that use this building. From left to right they are the Partick Cryptic Council No 113, Partick Royal Arch Chapter No 113 and Partick Royal Ark Mariner and Red Cross Council No 113.

Partick Temple has the honour of being the only Temple to still have a Royal Arch Chapter, Cryptic Council and a Royal Ark Mariner and Red Cross Council within the Temple.

The First Past Masters Board 1769 to 1862

The Second Past Masters Board 1862 to 1968

The Second Past Masters Board 1868 to 2009 (at time of taking this picture)

Partick St Mary's Lodge has currently three Past Master boards 1769 to 2009 (at time of taking the third PM board).

What the balcony looks like, it can seat up to 35 Brethren on a busy meeting.

Behind the temple is a small staired

corridor which leads to the temple kitchen and officebearers room.

The temple kitchen, unfortunity now unused due to the mordern kitchen on the top flight.

And to the left of the temple kitchen is the officebearers room. Where the officerbearers change before and ofter the meeting.

Now that you have seen the Temple lets move up the stairs, we will skip the stairwell, which you have already seen.

The first thing you will notice just before you get to the top of the stairs is the portrait of the most famous modern Scot and Brother of the Craft, Robert Burns (25th January 1759 – 21st July 1796) and made a mason on 4th July 1781.

The top landing, if you have made it this far you are doing well, because you have just climbed 114 steps!!!!! Once you have got your breath back, the kitchen is to your left, to your right is the store room and committee room and right in front of you is the Top Hall or Harmony Room

This room is now the Committee Room, but was once the living room of the caretaker of the hall (pre 1990's)

All Committee, enquire and office bearers meeting take place within this room.

Harmony Room where all dinners are taken, many a song, joke and speech has been made here over the last hundred years. On the east wall is the crest of Partick St Mary's Lodge, above the Right Worshipful Master's Chair is a portrait of the Reigning Monarch, Queen Elizabeth I (Queen of Scots) & II (Queen of England) and on the right is an old portrait of the Lodge room of Partick St Mary's Lodge in 18th Centenary.

Harmony Room, East Hall where the top table sits

View of the Harmony Room from the south east corner. On the wall is a picture of King Solomon's Temple.

At this end of the hall are kept all the cutlery, dinner wear, etc

Another view of the Harmony Room from the North East corner.

Lodge Syllabus

Tour of the Building

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