Loyal Duke of Cambridge Lodge

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The Loyal Duke of Cambridge Lodge Hall was built in 1909. It was the home of one of Cambridge’s strongest community organisations for nearly sixty years.

The Lodge itself began in 1867, when fifteen men gathered at the Duke of Cambridge Hotel to form a society that would support members in times of sickness and death. Each man paid a small subscription into a fund. The first claim was for dysentery in 1872, and the first funeral grant in 1881. The Loyal Duke of Cambridge Lodge Minute Books have been indexed. Read more here.

Loyal Duke of Cambridge Lodge, 1960S CM2958.8.70

By the time the hall was built, the Lodge had grown steadily and was a central part of social life in Cambridge. Meetings, events, and friendships thrived here. In 1926 women were finally admitted. Nellie Hall became the first, and only three years later she was elected the Lodge’s first female Noble Grand.

The Lodge celebrated its centenary in 1967 before closing soon after. Today, the building remains as a reminder of the role friendly societies once played in supporting and uniting the Cambridge community.