Prior to the formation of the first Grand Lodge in 1717, many lodges were private and held their meetings in private homes. During the early revival period in the eighteenth century, speculative lodges shifted predominantly to meeting in inns and taverns, as demonstrated by the four original London lodges that convened at the Goose and Gridiron, the Crown, the Apple-Tree, and the Rummer and Grapes.
This site is offered free, for the private study of Freemasonry. It has no
official standing with any Grand Lodge and speaks for no jurisdiction. It
is one Mason's project, not an authority.
Answers are generated by a language model from passages in the library
and, where the question reaches past it, from web sources retrieved at the
time of asking. They can be mistaken — in a date, in an attribution,
in the weight given to a disputed point. Each answer names what it drew
on so that you can check it. Please do, before repeating anything that
matters, in lodge or in print.
No part of the library is reproduced here. Citations name the author, the
work and the page so that you may consult the original; the passages
themselves stay on the server and are never published. Copyright in those
works remains with their holders.
Questions asked here, and the answers given, are stored and shown publicly
on the recent answers page at a permanent web address, and may be indexed
by search engines. Please do not enter anything private, anything
concerning another person, or anything you would not wish read by a
stranger. No account is needed and nothing personal is collected beyond
ordinary web analytics.
Everything here is provided as it stands, without warranty of any kind,
and nothing on this site is legal, financial, medical or professional
advice.