the times | Wednesday December 2 2020 2GM 19
News
Nothing shouts “secret society” quite
like a press release announcing the
opening of a large gift shop near Covent
Garden, London, where anyone can
wander in off the street and buy regalia,
insignia and ritual guides without
having to give a special handshake or
say the password. But after decades of
inviting conspiracy theorists by keep-
ing their activities private, those who
run freemasonry are now very happy to
shed light on their 300-year-old broth-
erhood.
The spacious new shop in what used
to be the drawing room at Freemasons’
Hall on Great Queen Street has been
created by Lumsden, who also designed
the shops at the British Museum, Tate
Modern and National Theatre. It re-
flects the desire of the United Grand
Lodge of England to make their head-
quarters more public-facing.
God knows what Edward VII,
George Washington and the other
grandees whose portraits hang in Free-
masons’ Hall would make of their suc-
cessors boasting of “enhancing the visi-
tor experience” with a range of objects
including men’s grooming equipment,
jewellery and scarves for women and
postcards of such famous masons as
Churchill and Kipling. Even teddy
bears wearing aprons are available, as
well as objects used in meetings such as
white gloves, gavels and ties bearing the
square and compasses logo. The shopalso boasts “Savile Row tailoring”, pre-
sumably with plenty of room around
the calf for rolling up one’s trouser leg.
Last year, 50,000 members of the
public visited the museum at Free-
masons’ Hall, which was built as a me-
morial to the 3,225 masons who died on
active service in the First World War.
A spokeswoman said that once the
Covid-19 restrictions are fully lifted
they hope to grow visitor numbers by 10
to 20 per cent a year.
David Staples, the chief executive,
said that freemasonry used to be a com-
mon sight in public life but had gone
quiet during the Second World War
under the threat of persecution. “We
have been too slow to re-establish the
reputation we had before the war as a
force for good in society,” he said.Forget Fortnum’s...
shop with the masons
Patrick Kidd
The shop sells souvenirs that bear the
masons’ square and compasses logoTMS
[email protected] | @timesdiary
Showtime for
Max Johnson
You don’t hear much about Max
Johnson, something for which he is
quite glad, but the prime minister’s
youngest sibling, right, is hoping for
a bit more attention. He tells Tatler
that he is seeking a publisher for his
memoir about working for an
investment bank in the Far East. It’s
provisionally called Filth, which
stands for “Failed in London, try
Hong Kong”. He also wants to
return to acting (he was in the
BBC’s The Prince and the Pauper
aged 11) and has recently attended a
drama school in Soho. “I didn’t have
the guts to do acting professionally
after university,” he says. “Maybe I
didn’t think I had the talent.” A
Johnson with modesty? How rare.cold shoulder
More inaccuracy in The Crown,
though just a little one this time.
Asked about the scene in which his
character surprises a gala at the
Royal Opera House by dancing
with Princess Diana, Wayne Sleep
says: “They made it so shoulder-y. It
was a little more elegant than that.”
Diana was full of confidence, he
says — “she strode in like a tigress”
— but he was terrified that hemight drop the future Queen. He
met Prince Charles afterwards. The
reaction? “He had a raised
eyebrow,” is all that Sleep will say.There has been much discussion of
what constitutes a “substantial lunch”
for the purposes of going to the pub
in these tiered times. And do you
have to eat what you order? I don’t
like scotch eggs, which are allowed,
but I’ll buy one if it means I can
drink. Call it the porkage charge.food for thought
Journalists’ lunches used to be light
on substance. Our own Giles Coren
once told me that he was invited
out to lunch on his first day at The
Times in the mid-90s by an old
hack, who took him to a pub in
Wapping and told stories as they
drank a bottle of red wine. A
second bottle was ordered and
Coren wondered when the menus
would arrive. It was only as theyopened a third bottle that young
Giles, showing an early talent for
restaurant criticism, wondered if
they would be eating. “Food?!?” his
companion replied, aghast like an
inky-fingered Mr Bumble. “Well I
suppose you could have some crisps
if you really need to.. .”And speaking of scotch eggs, the
novelist Ian Rankin offers us his
detective Inspector Rebus’s patented
recipe for the delicacy: “1) Put eggs
on to boil. 2) Pour a Scotch while you
wait. 3) Keep drinking. 4) Throw
away the eggs.”three lions whipped
The comedian David Baddiel says
that his daughter, who wants to be
in musicals, sings like an angel, a
talent she gets from her mother. “I
can’t sing, even though I’ve had
four number ones,” he says. “Well,
four of the same song.” This is the
football anthem Three Lions, which
regularly tops the charts at
moments of misplaced national
optimism. Baddiel is particularly
proud of the first review it had, in Q
magazine in 1996, which said: “In
the future, folk memory will have
erased the memory of David
Baddiel’s singing just as it has
erased the memory of corpse
robbers during the Blitz.”patrick kidd