George and Vulture Tavern
T
by Mr. Pickwick (Charles Dickens’s Pickwick he " The George and Vulture," a fa- Papers). mous Masonic House, is described as "near Balls Alley was Of Taverns of lesser note the George Inn since the we have the " Edinburgh Great Fire built with very Castle Inn " "which stood good Houses, well inhabiton the site of the Castle" ed and warehouses being mentioned by Stow, and a large open Yard called the Albion Lodge No. 9 George Yard the further found a home there in end of which is the George 1774. " The Cock and Lion and Vulture which is a Tavern " where the Royal large House, and of a good Kent Lodge of Antiquity trade having a passage No. 20 met in 1740, was into St. Michael's Alley." entirely destroyed in the The Tavern was much fire of 1748. " The Sun bedamaged in the fire of the hind the Royal Exchange" 25th March, 1748, for we was in the reign of Charles read in the London MagaII. kept by John Wadlow, zine of that date that the sometime land- lord of " back premises were burnt The Devil Tavern," Fleet down, and other houses in Street. Pepys relates on the Yard entii'ely destroyed. The Inn was re- the 28th June, 1667, "Mr. Lowther tells me stored and enlarged, and from about 1810 to the Duke of Buckingham do dine at Wadlow's 1848 many distinguished Lodges met there. at the Sun Tavern." A Lodge was meeting here We find the St. George's Lodge (now St. in 1743, but lapsed in 1761. George and Corner Stone No. 5) there in 1839, but it seems to have taken its name It is a grade II listed building. What is amazfrom " The George Tavern," Commercial ing is that there has been an in on the site Road, Stepney, when it met in 1820. Amongst since 1142 and was the home to the notoriother Lodges, the Old Dundee Lodge No. 18 ous Hell Fire Club. met there in 1821, and the Emulation Lodge No. 21 in 1815. It will be remembered that the " George and Vulture " was much beloved
Cross Keys Aprilk 2022
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