Place Name
Led to the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution which was officially opened in August 1850 “with great ceremony”. The original idea for an Asylum for Worthy, Aged, and Decayed Freemasons was first mooted in 1831 and the Grand Lodge started the Royal Masonic Benevolent Annuity Fund in 1842. This was the first such home, later changing its name to the Royal Masonic Asylum, it remained until 1955 when the need for bigger premises meant that it moved to a new home, Harewood Court, in Hove, East Sussex. The property was bought as an old people’s home by Croydon Council and six years later reopened and named Davidson Lodge. By 1973 the property was in a poor state and to prevent its demolition it was made a Grade II listed building. The accommodation was improved in 1981 when it was converted to 36 bedsits. There were further conversions and improvements in 1983. Two years later Age Concern became tenants of the central hall, which they named the Joyce Grant Centre. They left in 1998. The hall remained empty until Croydon Neighbourhood Care Association took up residence in 2001.
