The City of Brighton, the masonic capital of the Province of Sussex, is dominated by the stupendous Royal Pavilion. There is a strong masonic connection in this context, which starts with HRH The Prince of Wales (1762-1830 and, from 1820, King George IV), who was initiated into Freemasonry in 1787 and served as Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge between 1790 and 1813. In 1815, when Prince Regent, he commissioned the famous English Regency Architect John Nash (1752-1835) to build the Pavilion. Since 1818, and after many repairs and much conservation, today it essentially looks as it did at the time. The masonic connections with the Pavilion continue in the Banqueting Hall, one of the most magnificent interiors of the Pavilion designed by Frederick Crace and Robert Jones. The decorative emblems of beasts and wild animals intermingled with the signs of the Zodiac also have blatant masonic symbols which include the All Seeing Eye within a triangle and circle.
    There is ample evidence of the masonic fraternity’s use of the hall in the mid nineteenth century. In fact after 1873, when the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery was constructed, thus freeing the rooms on the first floor of the Pavilion, they became known as The Masonic Rooms until 1928, when the New Temple was dedicated at 25 Queen Street. John Lane in his Masonic Records lists no less than seven Brighton lodges that met at the Royal Pavilion between 1867 and 1887. On 9 April 1886 the ceremony of the installation of HRH Arthur Duke of Connaught as Provincial Grand Master for Sussex, was held at the same venue. Masonic ladies nights and other related events continued to take place at the Pavilion until 1938.
    It would be logical to speculate, though without tangible evidence, that whilst active as a Freemason, the Prince of Wales chose to entertain his masonic entourage in his Pavilion, as he did with other friends and family, famously on 15 January 1817, when the banquet menu listed 112 dishes, including 36 entrées. It is not surprising to find that his weight, which had reached seventeen and a half stone in 1797, needed, by 1824, a corset for a 50-inch waist!
    An apron worn by the Prince whilst in Brighton is a prized item on display at the Sussex Masonic Centre. A painting of him in his masonic regalia is situated on the top floor of Brighton’s Town Hall and shows him wearing an ordinary craft apron. It is a painting by Edmund Scott (1746-1815) a past Master of Clarence Lodge, No. 271.
    All these events preceded the establishment of a permanent home for the masons of Brighton. The Masonic Centre at 25 Queens Road, thus conveniently situated a three minute walk away from Brighton’s main line station, was first bequeathed to the masons in 1897 by the owner of the property. Due to various difficulties the foundation stone was only laid on 26 June 1919, when the premises were used as a Masonic Club. It is a very large building on three floors and integrated with the adjoining premises on both sides, and was officially dedicated as a masonic centre in 1928.
    Interestingly, the first committee appointed in 1817 to investigate the acquisition of a Masonic Hall in Brighton, also mentions the establishment of a masonic library and museum. This was not achieved until 1898. Today the library is split between the Grand Officers’ robing room on the ground floor and the Provincial Grand Master’s study on the second. Having so many treasures constantly on view means that the Museum is on display to every Brother from the moment he enters the building and wherever he is within the premises.
    The Library and Museum of the Province of Sussex does indeed possess several treasures and many unique and unusual masonic collectables. The nerve centre, so to speak, is a tiny office on the first floor occupied by the Curator and Librarian, Reginald Barrow. It is through the trading of duplicate objects, mostly masonic jewels, that Reg has added important items to the collection and improved the standing of the Library and Museum.
    We started viewing the collection from the top floor where the spacious main Temple is situated. Opposite the Temple is the small robing room where we encountered the first group of glass collectables placed in a large full-size glass cabinet divided into several sections. Here was a small but good collection of firing glasses and drinking mugs, many with the usual masonic transfers, several decanters and a complete dinner set made of china. The processional corridor leading from the staircase to the Temple is almost crowded with a total of sixteen display units hanging from the walls and long legged glass cabinets on either side of the narrow passage. The wall units display a very extensive collection of the jewels of the Craft with just a few empty spaces awaiting additions. One outstanding, possibly unique, item is an armband of the Royal Masonic Institution for Boys issued in 1877, before the familiar Steward’s breast jewels came into being. There are a number of unusual jewels issued during World War II and just after, made of cloth due to the lack of availability of metal. The very last panel on the facing wall has an outstanding collection of Royal Arch jewels spanning two centuries from 1797 to 1907.
    The standing cabinets below the display of jewels have an array of interesting masonic objects, some of them simple and utilitarian, nonetheless now extremely rare due to their being so unusual, and often ephemeral. An intricately carved nineteenth century French wooden blotting pad sits next to an 1831 equally well-engraved scrimshaw powder flask, with prominent masonic emblems decorating both items. One of the cabinets has a small and varied collection of sixteen snuff boxes covering the genre: several with lacquered lids, bone and tortoise shell examples.
    The Editor of Freemasonry Today and I were fortunate to be allowed to use the Provincial Grand Master’s study to inspect and photograph various items. The room itself, however, is part of the museum complex. It constitutes a section of the Masonic Library with a very good selection of rare books, including a copy of the First Constitutions of 1723 by James Anderson, in a locked glass cabinet.
    The total library consists of some 1200 books, which include biographies and bibliographies, history with the emphasis on Sussex Freemasonry. There is a section on esoteric books and orders beyond the Craft and general masonic jurisprudence. The library includes a good selection on masonic magazines and Research Lodge transactions.
    In the centre of the room is a very large and beautiful mahogany table on which Reg placed for us the folder of the famous John Harris Tracing Boards of which he is very proud indeed. Beside the table a Queen Anne period chair is a true museum piece and quite outstanding.
    It was the property of the Earl of Kingston who died in 1764. J. P. M. Smith, whose family had owned the chair after the Earl’s death, presented it to the Royal Clarence Lodge in 1889. On the opposite side, leaning against the north wall, is an extended and very large 3-shelf glass display unit.
    Again we came across fascinating objects, several extraordinary in their concept, ranged on the shelves. Next to the familiar large punch bowls and other china pieces, most of them lightly damaged because they saw practical use, are two classical and rare Meissen masonic figurines of the Order of the Mopses, displaying the pug.
    Walking down the staircase to the second floor, the walls are adorned with more aprons spanning the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
    They are of all shapes, somewhat damaged but well preserved and decorative, with examples of all the additional degrees beyond the Craft. Another standing display unit on the first floor contains many items. Here we see a selection of swords including the unusual twisted Tyler’s sword popularly referred to as the flaming sword, in allusion to the angel that guarded the entrance to Eden with a flaming sword. There is a total of seven swords, some of the Order of the Knights Templar, with beautiful carvings on the blade and the hilt.
    Finally, on the wall leading to the ground floor, an enormous and detailed print shows recognisable faces of the thousands who attended the Installation of H R H the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) at the Royal Albert Hall in 1878. It appears to be a proof copy, without the imprint usually found, which reads:
    Drawn by Edwd Jas HARRTY, PM 1201 and Engraved by Abel Lurat & Edward G Hester London published Jany 1st 1878 by Bros Edwd J Harty.
    This print is often accompanied by a separately published sixteen page booklet entitled Key to the Historical Engraving of the Installation of H R H The Prince of Wales, M W Grand Master, Albert Hall and identifies all the masons present, naming them individually.
    The Museum, as will have been amply illustrated in this article, is truly worth a visit and Reg Barrow is happy to conduct visitors round. The direct phone line in the Museum is 01273 737404.
    My grateful thanks to Andrew Barlow, Keeper of the Royal Pavilion and Conservation, my friend and colleague in Quatuor Coronati Lodge, Andy Durr, and my long-standing mentor Neville Barker Cryer, acknowledging his Masonic Halls of England – The South published by Lewis Masonic, Shepperton, 1989.