Beyond the Lodge Room: Life at The Kent Club

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The Kent Club has always had a simple idea at its heart: that Freemasonry is richer when Brethren get to know one another away from the Lodge room, over a dinner, a tour, a pint, or a shared afternoon of discovery. It's an idea that has quietly taken hold, and this year it has been on full display.

Take the President's Dinner in June, held in the Private Members' Dining Room at the House of Commons. Members arrived through the Palace of Westminster for a drinks reception in Westminster Hall. The evening opened with a fanfare from the London Assemble, and the Metropolitan Grand Master, RW Bro Warren Duke, attended as the Club's President and spoke of the friendships it continues to build. It was formal, it was memorable, and it was exactly the kind of occasion the Club was founded to create: a chance for members, partners and friends to sit down together somewhere unforgettable.

But the Club's character shows just as clearly in its quieter moments. A wander through The Charterhouse in Clerkenwell in March took members through 650 years of monastic, Tudor and alms house history, into rooms rarely opened to the public. An evening's Historic Pub Tour in April proved, once again, that some of the best Masonic conversations happen over a pint rather than a gavel. And in July, members stepped into Sir John Soane's Museum, a building designed by a fellow Freemason and packed with the kind of curious, symbol-laden collection that seems made for a Masonic audience. “It was a lot more than I was ever expecting from this tour”, said one attendee, and that response tends to sum up what these evenings are really for: not the history alone, but the surprise of discovering it together.

That sense of a growing, deepening community shows up in the numbers too, if you want them: membership has risen from 500 to over 1,000 Brethren in the past 3 years, with more than 800 members and guests turning out across forty-two events. But the more telling sign is what has grown up around those figures. Pythagorean Chapter No 79, once threatened with closure and now reborn as the Club's own Special Interest Chapter, is approaching 40 members and giving Brethren from outside London a genuine way into the Metropolitan family. A new digital newsletter is reaching members and Lodge Membership Officers directly. Under the Chairmanship of Jason Read, the committee itself has evolved to match, with Bogdan Zaha now Deputy Chairman, Adarsh Shah settling in as Secretary, Eddie and, more recently, Robert joining as Deputy Events Officers, Mauro and Wade taking on Communications and Contact Officer.

None of it would mean much without what it's building towards: Brethren who might otherwise never meet, meeting; partners and friends getting a glimpse of why their other halves speak so warmly of the Craft; and a Club that Metropolitan Grand Lodge now recognises as a fourth pillar of its events programme, standing alongside those led by the Very Worshipful Brother John Parry. Not bad for a club that started out, back in 2010, hoping to run four evenings a year.

The calendar shows no sign of easing off. Ahead lie an exclusive tour of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, a night of pool, a guided tour of the National Maritime Museum followed by a pub, a fine dining evening at the Royal Air Force Club, and a wine tasting in the South Gallery, with more being added all the time.

The Kent Club is open to all London Freemasons, whatever their age or Lodge, and to their partners, families and friends besides. If you'd like to come along, or simply find out more, visit londonFreemasons.club


This article is part of Arena Magazine Issue 61 – Summer 2026.
Arena Magazine is the official online magazine of the London Freemasons – Metropolitan Grand Lodge and Metropolitan Grand Chapter of London.

Read more articles in Arena Issue 61 here.

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