Tivoli Lodge No. 9417

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Somerset Lodges Tivoli Lodge No. 9417 warranted 1991 Regular meetings: the fourth Saturday at 10.30hrs: Mar, May. Also the second Saturday at 10.30hrs: Dec. Installation meeting: the third Saturday at 10.30hrs Sep. Contact the Lodge Secretary: B A R Jones	Meeting at The Masonic Hall Tivoli Lane Boulevard Weston-super-Mare BS23 1NZ
The Provincial Grand Master for Somerset, The R. W. Bro. Stanley H. A. F. Hopkins consecrated the Tivoli Lodge, No. 9417 on Saturday 28th September 1991, assisted by members of the Provincial Team. Tivoli was the 2nd Lodge in Somerset to meet on a Saturday morning and invite the ladies to the Festive Board. It was named after the Tivoli Cinema which stood adjacent to the Masonic Hall. The building represented on the banner is in fact the ‘Triumphant Arch’ entrance to the cinema, whilst the masks of joy and sorrow within the entrance gateway represent its theatrical history. The Tivoli building was built in the late 19th Century and was first called the Victoria Hall. Down through the years it became Shanly’s Victoria Skating Rink, Albany Ward’s Palace of Varieties, The Palace Theatre and finally, The Tivoli. It has been a concert hall, a theatre, an opera house, a cycle track and a roller skating rink and has staged Pantomimes, Carnivals, Balls and Exhibitions. In 1928 it became a cinema complete with afternoon tea and waitress service and was the first of Weston’s four picture houses to show a “talkie”. In 1938 it was completely refurbished and advertised as the last word in air-conditioned luxury. “You’ll always be cool at the Tivoli”! The building was damaged beyond repair by enemy bombing during the 28th and 29th June 1942 although the adjacent Masonic Hall survived with only minor damage. The gates to the entrance were of wrought and cast iron and on that fateful morning a young boy, no doubt one of many who came to see the destruction, ‘picked up’ one of the rail-heads that had topped the gates and took it home as a souvenir! Forty-nine years later, now a Freemason and having kept it as a doorstop for all those years, returned it to the Tivoli Lodge Steering Committee, as the only remaining memento of a very unique and imposing building. Consequently, to prevent this last surviving memory of the Tivoli being lost and forgotten, it was fashioned into a gavel-block, and has been used by each successive Worshipful Master at every Festive Board since the Consecration of the lodge. (Historical notes provided by Pat Morrisey)
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