Welcome to St.George’s Esther Lodge No. 6597

The lodge was consecrated in 1948, and was originally a “legal lodge”, drawing membership from the legal profession, such as solicitors’, barristers, judges, & court officials etc. Over time this has changed, and the membership is now (2023) mainly managers from “Blue Chip” companies, Directors of electrical and mechanical maintenance companies, local education authority lecturers/managers, ground staff, plasterers, publicans, self-employed tradesmen, such as registered plumbers and gas safe engineers, electricians etc. All the above could be either working or retired. Currently, our youngest member is 26 and our oldest 95 years old.

The lodge meets four times a year (October, December, February and April) at Surbiton Masonic Hall, Surbiton, Surrey (SMH). Following on from the formal meeting, the socialising starts, over a four-course meal served with wine. This affords a wonderful opportunity to catch up with your lifelong brothers and visiting brethren from other lodges making our meetings truly special events. Most meetings start around 4:00pm and end around 9:00/9:30pm. The venue has its own car park as well as being close to Surbiton railway station and bus stops.

Outside of lodge, our members interests are varied, such as flying (model and light aircraft), sailing (mainly sea), radio/internet/computers, shooting, good food & drink, travel, local architecture, religion/theology, voluntary work in charities, golf, football, to name just a few.

The masonic year is approximately September to April and during those dark winter nights we encourage new members to attend our Lodge of Instruction (LoI). This is a great opportunity for our new brethren to quickly get to know other members in an informal environment and begin their journey to understanding what freemasonry is all about. It is held in a convenient room in SMH every Tuesday evening and lasts around one and a half hours. Initially, new members will not be able to attend every meeting, but as they progress in Masonry, more meetings will be made available. We strongly encourage new members to attend as many meetings as they can.

Charity and giving is fundamental to Freemasons, whether it be extending relief to a friend or Brother in time of need or organizing charitable events or sponsorship. The lodge also has a Charity Steward, and charitable donations are always most welcome. Some brethren give at meetings (of course confidentially and only what they can afford) other, more canny members, set up a standing order so if you are a UK taxpayer, the lodge can reclaim some tax, thereby increasing the value of your regular donation. If for any reason there is a charity you do not wish to support, give this information to the Charity Steward and he will ensure your wishes are carried out. Typically, in this lodge, we donate half the funds to a masonic charity(s) and half to non-masonic charity(s) each year, but we don’t split it to the nearest pound. It is more a rolling 50/50 split over a few years.

One of the highlights of the Masonic year is the “Ladies Events”. These can be anything from a meal in a restaurant to a full-blown weekend away in a hotel, often with a black-tie dinner and followed by dancing, this is a great opportunity for wives and partners to meet each other and all the members.

One of the greatest pleasures in Masonry is the interesting and diverse people you meet. As a lodge, we engage in visiting other lodges, in 2018 we visited a lodge in Istanbul, Turkey, and hosted a reciprocal visit from them to us. We also visited a lodge much closer to home, in Farnham, Surrey, where one of our members had the privilege of witnessing his brother being initiated into that lodge by his father. In 2019 we visited the Isle of Skye to attend a meeting under the Scottish Grand Lodge jurisdiction (which is different to the English jurisdiction), after the meeting we participate in some of the Scottish spirit! As can be seen, we really are an International lodge, based in Surbiton, Surrey. Of course, you do not have to participate in visits, it just an option available to you with our lodge.