1908 – Royal Masonic Institution, Boys New Schools, Bushey, Hertfordshire

Architect: Gordon & Gunton

From 1798 charities were set up for clothing and educating sons of needy Freemasons. They originally provided education by sending them to schools near to their homes. A specific masonic boys’ school was set up at Wood Green in North London in 1857 following amalgamation of the charities in 1852. A new school was built in Bushey, Hertfordshire in 1903 and a Junior School was added on the other side of The Avenue in 1929. By 1939 there were 800 boys at the school. Fee paying pupils were admitted from 1958 and day boys from 1966. Following a decline in pupil numbers the junior school closed in 1970; the site is now occupied by Bushey Hall School. Numbers continued to fall, and the senior school closed in 1977. For a time, the buildings housed the United States International University (Europe), and later became a film set. They have now been redeveloped as luxury housing.