A cloudless blue sky saw a good number of Claygate members assemble in front of the Royal Exchange Building, opposite the Bank of England, on the morning of Saturday 8th April, in order to take part in one of Mike Neville’s Masonic Walks around the City of London.
We were tagging on to this event which was organised by Amersham and Berkhamstead Lodges and we were delighted to meet up with Clive Herrington a member of Amersham Lodge who has attended Claygate meetings on several occassions. We were also delighted to meet up with Alex Maghakian – Gal, our first prospective member through the University Scheme, who will be joining us at our May meeting.
The route of the walk took us through the City, via the Guildhall, onto the site of the first meeting of modern freemasonry at the Goose and Gridiron pub, St Paul’s Churchyard, The Old Bailey, Fleet Street and onto Covent Garden with a midday stop for refreshments at Ye Old Chesshire Cheese pub before completing the final stage of the walk up Fleet St to Temple, stopping briefly at the little bookshop on the south side of Fleet Street which was used for masonic meetings in olden times followed by a short stop at the Law Courts before on towards Australia House & Great Queen St. A goodpub lunch followed the walk and a number of Claygate's great and good ended up in the Hole in the Wall at Waterloo to 'refresh' before getting the train home.
Mike Nevilles commentry on the sites visited during the walk were informative and fun and all who attended will have had a good walk as well as learning a lot about this great city in which we live.
Lionel Frewin
Lodge Information Officer
