Seven Kings Lodge was sponsored by Liberty of Havering Lodge No.1437 and Consecrated on 22^nd June 1899 at the White Hart Hotel in Romford. The Consecration was carried out under the direction of the Provincial Grand Master the R.W.Bro. Earl of Warwick. It ranks No.42 in the order of precedence for the province of Essex.

There were 22 Petitioners and Founders of the Lodge, the first Worshipful Master was W.Bro.Frank Evans, six more of the founder members went on to become Master of this Lodge. Our Present Master is the 103^rd to occupy that grand position within this Lodge.

In the early years regular meetings were held at the ‘White Hart Hotel’, the ‘Golden Lion Hotel’ and the ‘Cauliflower Hotel’ but soon the ‘White Hart’ became its only regular meeting place except for installation meetings which were so well attended that they were held in London at the ‘Holborn Restaurant’.

In 1935 all the meetings were switched to the newly erected ‘Lord Lambourne Masonic Hall’ in Romford until it was requisitioned in 1940 by the War Department. It is interesting to note that this Lodge was holding a meeting on the first night of the Blitz and our minutes tell of the proceedings being carried out during ‘continuous aerial bombardment’. Seven Kings Lodge then became ‘homeless’ for the next three years. During this time the meetings were held at a variety of places but in 1943 the ‘Roebuck Hotel’ Buckhurst Hill became the regular venue, this continued until 1949 when the Lodge returned to its roots at the ‘White Hart Hotel’ Romford. In 1967 the Lodge moved to the ‘Royal Forest Hotel’ Chingford and remained there until 1970 when it moved to its present home at ‘Upminster Masonic Hall’.

Seven Kings Lodge has four regular meetings per year, held on the third Friday  in February, fourth Saturday in April, first Saturday in June and our Installation meeting on the first Saturday in November. We also have a very strong Lodge of Instruction which meets at the British Legion Hall, Romford on Mondays between September and June.

There is of course a Royal Arch Chapter associated with us namely Seven Kings Chapter No.2749 which also meets at Upminster Masonic Hall. Chapter meetings are held on the fourth Saturday in March, second Saturday in June and third Friday in November, the latter being the Installation meeting.

Seven Kings has sponsored five Daughter Lodges although the ‘Genealogy of Essex Lodges’ shows only four. The four shown are Vigilance Lodge No. 3859 in 1918, Old Friendship Lodge No.3907 in 1919, Hainault Lodge No.4367 in 1922 and Tilney Lodge No.5856 in 1942. The discrepancy occurs over the original petition for Saint Chad Lodge No.3115 consecrated in 1905 which according to the archives held in the library at Freemasons Hall shows co-sponsors one of which is St. Erkenwald Lodge No.2808 and the other to be Seven Kings Lodge No.2749, so in a sense Saint Chad was our very first Daughter Lodge. The first mentioned four Lodges have since produced for us thirteen Granddaughter Lodges, six Great Granddaughter and one Great Great Granddaughter Lodge.

In addition to the four regular meetings this Lodge holds per year we have been the instigators of what we refer to as the ‘Boars Head’ which is a cluster meeting held every December, the theme of this being the support of a children’s hospice. At first it was ‘Quidenham’ but latterly we have supported ‘Little Havens’, which is in the Province of Essex. Every Brother who attends must bring with him a toy for the hospice and with a usual gathering of over 150 Masons it is a wonderful sight to see so many toys for those unfortunate children who may not enjoy another Christmas.

Seven Kings is always very keen to be involved in the charitable side of Masonry and during our centenary year we were able to donate sufficient to be presented with the Gold Award for the Essex Festival 2000. We are truly proud of this honour.

This is a summary of our lodge activities, Historical parts were taken from our book 'The Seven Kings Lodge No. 2749 1899 - 1999' printed in 1999 to commemorate the Lodge Centenary. The book was printed in limited numbers and is sadly unavailable for general distribution.