Warrant to found the Lodge was granted by Grand Lodge on 25 April 1857.
Camden Lodge was formed by brethren from St Marys’ who were a mixture of “gentlemen” and “professionals”; engineers, surveyors, builders, working on the then new railway extension at Kentish Town. They couldn’t get back in time for St Mary’s meetings. At that time St Marys’ was meeting in Freemasons’ Tavern in Great Queen Street, near Holborn, making it difficult for those brethren then working in Kentish Town to attend Freemasons’ Tavern. Hence they petitioned for a lodge of their own. It was the custom in those days that the name of your Lodge was usually the name of the tavern where you met or the location where you lived or worked – hence Camden Lodge.
St Marys’, our Mother Lodge, was constituted under a Warrant N0. LX111, dated 14th April 1757, issued by the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons.
The First meeting of Camden Lodge was at 4.30 pm on Tuesday 16 June 1857 at the Assembly House Kentish Town.
Prior to the First World War many Germans had settled in London. One, a Bavarian brother, Herr Truter presented to the Lodge in 1911 the sword used by his father during the 1871 Franco-Prussian War. Bro Truter was interned during the war and repatriated to Germany after the war and died soon afterwards. The sword was still in use in the Lodge in 1957 but has since been unfortunately lost.
The Lodge continued to meet through The Crimean, the Franco-Prussian and the Boer Wars. Nothing in the records to show that they had any direct effect on its continuous and smooth running.
The Two world Wars had a more direct impact; the effect of food rationing led to a more restricted Festive Board and, of course, those at meetings were mindful of the horrors of total war, civilian and military casualties.Members recalled that many ceremonies were conducted to the accompaniment of the all too familiar noises of air raids. The fine spirit of the Lodge persisted and its progress, although frequently disturbed, was never stopped.
The Lodge continued to develop after the Second World War meeting four times a year.
