Phoenix Hall, Sunderland
Phoenix Hall, also known as Queen Street Masonic Temple, is a Masonic hall in Queen Street East, Sunderland. Built in 1784–1785 to John Bonner's design, it is listed at Grade I. The eighteenth-century lodge room survives within a building enlarged for dining, administration and other uses.[1]
From Vine Street to Queen Street
Phoenix Lodge previously occupied a hall in Vine Street that was damaged by fire in November 1783. The replacement stood on a different site, formerly part of the Golden Lion Hotel's bowling green. The Trust's history records a £600 building cost, met through shares bought by members and donations. The new hall opened on 5 April 1785.[2]
The distinction between the two sites matters: the Trust describes how twentieth-century research corrected an earlier belief that the present building occupied the site of its predecessor.[2]
Architecture and later additions
The brick exterior has stone dressings and a Palladian composition, with the central window framed by a large round-headed recess. Inside, the rectangular lodge room retains neoclassical decoration, carved furnishings and an organ gallery. Historic England records an organ made by John Donaldson for the hall's opening and principal chairs acquired from St John's Lodge in Newcastle.[1]
The building developed around this older room. An adjoining building was converted to banqueting accommodation in the 1890s, and a rear entrance range was added in 1923. The surviving complex therefore includes work from several periods.[1]
Furnishings and documentary evidence
The hall's construction involved several local craftsmen. Historic England records a payment of £30 to a carver named Pears and fifty guineas to the organ builder John Donaldson. It also attributes much of the wooden fit-out to Bonner. The organ's case is surmounted by a phoenix, while the lodge room retains a pair of decorated fireplaces. Original floor beams remain visible in the cellar beneath it.[1]
The later banqueting room contains a cast-iron fireback bearing the date 1588. This is a date on a furnishing, not the date of the hall: the room itself was adapted in the 1890s.[1]
The Heritage Trust's account draws on title deeds and Phoenix Lodge's minute books, accounts and membership records. The lodge records escaped the 1783 fire because they were kept at the secretary's house. Their survival permits the history of ownership and rebuilding to be checked against documents as well as the standing fabric.[2]
Conservation
In February 2023, Historic England reported completed repairs supported by a grant of more than £200,000. The work covered the roof, joinery, masonry and parts of the interior. It formed part of Sunderland's Historic High Streets Heritage Action Zone programme, involving Historic England, Sunderland City Council and local partners.[3]
The hall is an example of a purpose-built meeting place whose fabric and furnishings can be studied alongside lodge records and property deeds. A broader discussion of rooms and their adaptation appears in The Layout of the Craft Lodge.
Related articles
- The Layout of the Craft Lodge
- Freemasons' Hall, London
- The Three Orders of Architecture
- Masonic museums and libraries
- Masonic buildings and memorials
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Historic England, Phoenix Hall, National Heritage List for England, entry 1279903, amended 13 August 2019.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Queen Street Masonic Heritage Trust, Temple History, sections on the Vine Street fire, land deeds and construction.
- ↑ Historic England, Sunderland MP Visits Newly Restored Grade I-Listed Masonic Lodge, 14 February 2023.
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