Hidden Joburg: The Freemasons' Hall in Parktown

2Summers | 1 December 2022
johannesburg architecture history hidden joburg

My quest to visit all of the places featured in the Hidden Johannesburg book continues. With my recent trip to the Freemasons’ Hall, which I’m about to tell you about, I have now visited 20 of the 28 places in the book. This will be my final Hidden Joburg post of the year and I think it’s a good one.

Outside of the Freemason’s Hall in Parktown
The façade of the Freemasons’ Hall. Tiny Gail gives you an idea of how big the building is – too big to fit the entire length of it into a photo. Although the front of the building looks quite old, with its neoclassical columns, it was actually built in the 1950s.

You’re probably wondering how I got access to the Freemasons’ Hall. It actually happened through the Rand Club, where I joined recently and where several Freemasons are also members. I met a bunch of Masons at a networking event at the Rand Club two weeks ago, and one of them was kind enough to arrange this visit for me, Eden (also a Rand Club member), and my friends Fiver and Gail. Although some Freemason rules and traditions are secret, the building itself is not, and pre-arranged visits are welcome. I’ll include contact details at the end of this post.

Columns at the Freemasons’ Hall
I love these columns.

The Freemason’s Hall, designed in 1954 by South African architect Gordon Leith, is a wide, imposing building that sits on the border of Parktown and Hillbrow and shares a parking lot with Brenthurst Hospital. The hall is home to the District Grand Lodge of South Africa, North, which falls under the United Grand Lodge of England.

South Africa is unique in the Freemasonry world because it has two networks of lodges: a group that falls under the United Grand Lodge of England, and another group that falls under the Grand Lodge of South Africa. I could ramble on for ages about what Freemasonry is and the history of this vast, loosely affiliated network of organizations. But it’s very complicated, some (but not all) of it is secret, and I would inevitably get things wrong and offend Freemasons the world over. (In fact, I’m sure I will do that anyway. Please don’t mansplain me, Masons. Despite the fact that I happen to share your name, I am clueless. I am also a woman and women aren’t allowed to be Freemasons.)

Anyway, from here on I’m going to skip over most of the details and just show you pretty pictures, all taken during our informative tour with the Freemasons’ District Grand Secretary, Roland Dunstan.

Inside the Freemasons’ Hall

Lobby of the Freemasons’ Hall
Fiver in the Freemasons’ entrance hall.
Freemasons’ stairway
The beautiful stairway (which reminds me a lot of the Rand Club stairway), is the star of the show in this building.
Landing of the Masonic stairway
Vertical stairway
I took so many pictures of the stairway.
Balustrade metalwork at the Freemasons’ Hall
I think there’s a lot of symbolism in the metalwork of this balustrade.
Masonic stairaway
The first floor of the Freemasons’ Hall has portraits of all the different District Grand Masters who have served over the decades. Here is a detailed history of District Grand Lodge with a list of all the Grand Masters. (I know, I know, the term "Grand Master" sounds weird, especially for Americans. But that’s what the leaders of the Masonic lodges are called and it has nothing to do with that other thing.)
Stained glass in Freemasons’ Hall
Cool stained glass window and a bust of Merton Sidney Freeman, District Grand Master from 1989 to 1994.

Roland also took is into the library, which I thought was very cool.

Eden and Gail browse through the library, which has lots of interesting things to look at.
WWI memorial in the Freemason library
A World War I memorial in the library.
Book of Masonic thought
A Treasury of Masonic Thought.
Masonic crowns
There is a lot of regalia in Freemasonry – crowns and sashes and jewels and such. It’s kind of like Miss America! (Sorry, Masons.)

Thanks so much to Roland and the rest of the Masons for letting us visit – it was fascinating. If you’d like to learn more or schedule a visit to the Freemasons’ Hall (the hall also hosts events and film shoots), call 011-643-3311.

Heather on the Masonic stairway
Photo: Fiver Löcker

Browse all of my posts about Hidden Joburg places here.