Our History

The Founding — 2nd June 1785

Lodge of Harmony No. 255 was founded by Thomas Dunckerley on the 2nd June 1785 at The Toy Inn, a hostelry immediately adjoining Hampton Court Palace in what is now the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

The lodge was founded 68 years after the establishment of the Premier Grand Lodge of England in 1717. To place this in historical context, when the lodge was consecrated: the American War of Independence had only recently concluded; the storming of the Bastille was still four years away; and the Battle of Waterloo was thirty years in the future.

The lodge has operated continuously since that date and is today the oldest lodge in the Province of Middlesex. Lodge numbers are not an indication of a lodge’s age; numbers have been swapped, sold, bought, and transferred over the years.

The Toy Inn

The Toy Inn was built circa 1650 for Oliver Cromwell's troops, rebuilt circa 1700, and demolished circa 1840. It stood adjacent to the main gates of Hampton Court Palace. Before Thomas Dunckerley chose it as the setting for his new lodge, the inn had already accumulated considerable history: the poet Alexander Pope is said to have written The Rape of the Lock there, and William, Duke of Clarence — later King William IV — formed and presided over his "Toy Club" at the same venue.

The lodge met at The Toy Inn for 37 years before moving on. The inn itself was demolished circa 1840, but its memory — and the lodge's founding there — is preserved by a bronze plaque erected in July 1933 by Lodge of Harmony No. 255 on the wall to the right-hand side of the main gate of Hampton Court Palace. The plaque remains in place today.

Sir Arthur Sullivan & the Gilbert Connection

The lodge's most historically significant member is Professor Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), composer of the music to the legendary Gilbert & Sullivan operettas — including The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, and H.M.S. Pinafore.

Sullivan was initiated into Lodge of Harmony No. 255 on 11 April 1865, at the time meeting at the Greyhound Inn, Richmond, Middlesex. He was introduced to Freemasonry by a fellow member, the composer Frederick Emes Clay.

Sullivan was passed to the Second Degree on 3 October 1865 and raised to Master Mason on 30 January 1866.

The lodge's own records, supported by research published in The Square Magazine (September 2021), confirm that Sullivan was introduced to the librettist W.S. Gilbert through a member of Lodge of Harmony No. 255. Their shared Masonic connections subsequently made it easier for the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte to bring the two men together for their first major collaboration, Trial by Jury (1875).

Sullivan later became a member of Studholme Lodge No. 1591, London (1896) and achieved the rank of Past Grand Organist of the United Grand Lodge of England. Gilbert joined Bayard Lodge No. 1615 in June 1876.