Bristol is unique in that it is the only Province within the English Constitution that is a City, and the ceremonies are unique, and all the degrees meet in one building.
    Freemasons’ Hall was built for the Bristol Philosophical Society in 1820 and cost more than £14,000. In 1871, local Freemasons, who had been seeking larger premises, offered to buy it for £5,500.
    The society decided to go to auction and the building was purchased for £5,950. A mortgage was raised at 4% for £4,000 and this was paid off in the following year.
    All the Bristol degrees met in the new Hall until 24 November 1940, when an incendiary bomb gutted it. In 1955 rebuilding commenced, and in 1957 the Hall was reopened and rededicated by the Grand Master, MW Brother the Earl of Scarborough. The original walls were incorporated in the rebuilt building.
    Above the main door there is a frieze, carved in Portland Stone, of the Muses. This was sculpted by W Bro E.H. Baily, a Royal Academician, a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Past Senior Grand Deacon of the United Grand Lodge of England. He is perhaps better known as the sculptor of Admiral Lord Nelson on Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square.
    The building is the home of 35 Craft Lodges, 12 Royal Arch Chapters, seven Mark Lodges, two Royal Ark Mariner Lodges and the Rite of Baldwyn, consisting of Knights Templar, Rose Croix and other Christian degrees not worked anywhere else.
    As well as the actual Lodges and Chapters, the Hall is used by the Masonic Widows Association, a well-attended, popular and thriving organisation
    There are four floors. One room has been upgraded with chandeliers etc, and is used during the day for non-Masonic functions.
    The large Lodge room is beautifully decorated and is one of the finest outside Great Queen Street. It is laid out Bristol fashion, with tracing boards on a large central table.
    There is a rough Ashlar on the North-East corner, and a perfect Ashlar on the South-East corner. The three candles are placed at the East, West and South sides of the table and not by the chairs of the Principal Officers. The candlesticks have small wooden steps at their bases, that on the East having seven steps, that on the West five steps and that on the South three steps.
    A Bible, square and compasses is placed on a small table between the pillars and a further Bible, compasses and square on the Worshipful Master’s pedestal. In this Lodge room is a very fine Viscount Organ with speakers behind the grille situated in the West.
    The Provincial Grand Master during the last war lived at Weston-Super-Mare and it appears that, fortunately, he kept some of the artefacts in his house, and they were preserved from the fire.
    The Provincial Sword is one of these items. When not in use, it is kept in a display case outside the main Lodge room. It was made for the Province of Bristol in 1806 and the blade is engraved with symbols from all the degrees worked in the city.
    Bristol working is a unique set of ceremonies that are never printed. The rituals are all hand written and checked against a master copy. This uniqueness extends to all the degrees in Bristol. For this reason the various Lodge rooms are laid out in a different manner from those outside the Province.
    Leading off from the main Temple is a small Chapel. In Bristol, at the Installation meeting of each Lodge, the Installed Masters leave the main Lodge room to go into the Chapel for the inner working, leaving the Master Masons in the Lodge room itself.
    The second temple has red furniture and is laid out for the Royal Arch Chapter. To enter, one has to pass through a room with three veils across it: red, purple and blue. In this room the ceremony of the veils, the precursor of the Chapter ceremony, is performed.
    A fourth veil is placed over the Chapter room door. The ceremony of “passing the veils” as practised in Bristol is not performed anywhere else. The veils room is also used for the Installation of the new Principals. The Installed Principals go out to this room, leaving the Companions in the Chapter Room, and the outgoing First Principal installs all the three new Principals.
    There is a connecting door between the veils room and the third Lodge room, enabling the Mark and Royal Ark Mariner Lodges to use the veils room for their Installations, leaving those brethren who have not yet attained the chair in the Lodge room itself. The Chapter room, when stripped of the Royal Arch items, can then be used for the Christian Degrees.
    The third Lodge room on this floor is a smaller copy of the main temple. It is used by Craft Lodges and also for several of the Mark degree ceremonies.
    On the second floor is another Lodge room, used by the Mark and Royal Ark Mariner Lodges, when available. This floor includes the Library and Museum. Once a year the building is open to the public.