Freemasons' Hall in London is the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England and the Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England, as well as being a meeting place for many Masonic Lodges in the London area. It is located in Great Queen Street between Holborn and Covent Garden and has been a Masonic meeting place since 1775. There have been three Masonic buildings on the site, with the current incarnation being opened in 1933.. Parts of the building are open to the public daily, its preserved classic Art Deco style, together with its regular use as a film and television location, have made it a tourist destination. In 1846, the World Evangelical Alliance was founded here. In 1775 the premier Grand Lodge purchased a house fronting the street, behind, a garden and a second house. A competition was held for the design of a Grand Hall to link the two houses; the front house was the Freemasons' Tavern, the back house was to become offices and meeting rooms. The winning design was by Thomas Sandby.

The current building, the third on this site, was built between 1927 and 1933 in the art deco style to the designs of architects Henry Victor Ashley and F. Winton Newman as a memorial to the 3,225 Freemasons who died on active service in World War I, it is an imposing Art Deco building. Known as the Masonic Peace Memorial, the name was changed to Freemasons' Hall at the outbreak of the World War II in 1939; the financing for building the hall was raised by the Masonic Million Memorial Fund. This fund raised over £1 million, it is a Grade II* listed building, both internally and externally. Central to the present building is the Grand Temple, meeting place for Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter and a majority of the lodges in the Metropolitan Grand Lodge of London, as well as the annual meetings of a number of the Home Counties Provincial Grand Lodges, for other Masonic degrees and orders to hold their annual meetings. Many non-Masonic organisations use the Grand Temple for numerous events as diverse as Fashion shows and Polytechnic award ceremonies.

Bronze doors, each weighing one and a quarter tonnes, open on to a Chamber 123 feet long, 90 feet wide and 62 feet high capable of seating 1,700. The ceiling cove is of Mosaic work and in addition to figures and symbols from Masonic ritual includes, in the corner, figures representing the four cardinal virtues – Prudence, Temperance and Justice – and the Arms of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn Grand Master 1901–1939, at whose suggestion the Masonic Peace Memorial was built. A superb large pipe organ is installed, built by leading British organ builders Henry Willis & Sons and magnificently restored by Harrison and Harrison of Durham being completed in 2015 with funds provided by Supreme Grand Chapter, the governing body for Royal Arch Masonry in England and the Channel Islands; the inaugural recital on the restored instrument was given on 30 September 2015 by Dr Thomas Trotter, Organist of Birmingham Town Hall and St Margaret's Church Westminster Abbey. In addition to the Grand Temple, there are a further 26 masonic temples within the building, used by Lodges and Chapters.

All are ornate in their various art deco styles, no two are identical. Amongst the temples which are of particular note, Temple No 1 was large and contained a series of portraits of former Grand Masters. However, the temple was converted into a conference space, by removing the furnishings and Willis pipe organ. Temple No 3, although of no unusual style in itself, contains a nineteenth-century chamber organ of note. Temple No 16 has a distinctive and decorated barrel vault ceiling. In addit

Ignas Jonynas was a Lithuanian diplomat and university professor. As a diplomat he is known for negotiations with the Second Polish Republic and League of Nations regarding Vilnius Region; as a historian he specialized in the history of Lithuania in the 13–16th centuries and lectured at the University of Lithuania and Vilnius University from 1924 until his death. He had a formative influence on the subsequent generations of historians. From 1904, Jonynas studied history at the University of Moscow under Matvei Kuzmich Liubavskii, an expert on the Lithuanian Metrica—medieval archives of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Liubavskii's critical approach to historical sources influenced Jonynas. Jonynas participated in the Russian Revolution of 1905 and thus had to transfer to the University of Grenoble to study French language and literature, he attended lectures on history at the University of Berlin. Acquitted by Russian courts, he returned to Moscow to finish his studies. After graduation in 1911, he worked as a school teacher in Noginsk and Moscow until 1919.

At the end of World War I, he returned to Lithuania and joined the People's Commissariat of Education of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. After the failure of the Soviet government, he lived in Vilnius, worked as a school principal, opposed Polish ambitions in the city. For a few months in mid-1920, he was the chief Lithuanian commissioner in the Vilnius Region. After the 1920 Żeligowski's Mutiny, during which Polish forces captured Vilnius, Jonynas moved to Kaunas and joined the control commission of the League of Nations to negotiate the dispute over the Vilnius Region. After the diplomatic efforts failed in 1922, Jonynas continued to be employed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania until 1929. From 1924 until his death, he lectured at the University of Lithuania and Vilnius University, attaining professorship in 1932; as a historian, Jonynas wrote little convinced that his works were not properly researched or that everything was written by somebody else. He contributed articles on Lithuanian dukes, nobles and other topics to the Lithuanian Encyclopedia, the first universal encyclopedia in the Lithuanian language.

He translated from Latin De moribus tartarorum, lituanorum et moscorum. His most important work was a study on the family of Vytautas, Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1392 to 1430. However, Jonynas helped to form a new generation of Lithuanian historians and raised their level of professionalism, he always critically analyzed primary sources and dismissed secondary sources—thus helping to rid Lithuanian historiography of mistakes, medieval legends and myths, foreign biases and stereotypes

Lovers and Luggers is a 1937 Australian film directed by Ken G. Hall, it is an adventure melodrama about a pianist who goes to Thursday Island to retrieve a valuable pearl. It was retitled Vengeance of the Deep in the United Kingdom. In London, concert pianist Daubenny Carshott is feeling dissatisfied with his life and wanting a masculine adventure. Stella agrees to marry him. Daubenny notes a painting in Stella's apartment from "Craig Henderson" but when asked Stella is evasive about the artist. Daubenny travels to Thursday Island where he buys a house from the villainous Mendoza, he makes friends on the island, including another diver, Craig Henderson, the drunken duo of McTavish and Dorner, the boisterous Captain Quidley. He meets Quidley's daughter, the beautiful Lorna, who likes to dress in men's clothing so she can walk around on her own at night. Lorna and Daubenny become friends and she secretly falls in love with him but Daubenny assumes she is in love with Craig. Captain Quidley, teaches Daubenny to dive.

Quidley, Lorna and Mendoza all go out diving for pearls. Daubenny finds a pearl, to the fury of Mendoza, who believes since Daubenny used his lugger that Mendoza should have a share. Daubenny disagrees and the two men fight on board the lugger, causing the pearl to drop over the side. Both men go down to retrieve the pearl. Mendoza dies and Daubenny is trapped. Bill Craig risks his life to rescue Daubenny. Back on Thursday Island, Stella has accompanied by an aristocratic friend, Archie. Daubenny discovers that Bill Craig is Craig Henderson, was in love with Stella, sent on a similar mission to find a pearl. Daubenny and Craig both reject Stella. Daubenny decides to leave Thursday Island on his boat. Lorna decide to get married, they sail off into the sunset with Captain Quidley. The script was based on a 1928 novel by Gurney Slade, from whom Cinesound obtained the film rights in late 1936. In the novel, Daubenny travels to "Lorne" rather than Thursday Island. Lorna is not related to Captain Quid, but is Stella's half-sister.

There are two other British expatriates diving for pearls in addition to Craig and Major Rawlings. Daubney is reunited with a reformed Stella at the end. Lorna winds up with Craig. Although the novel was set in Broome Ken G. Hall had Cinesound screenwriter Frank Harvey relocate the story to Thursday Island because it was easier to access. Hall gave the lead role to American actor Lloyd Hughes, a star in the silent era and since mostly worked on stage. Hall had met Hughes when the director visited Hollywood in 1935; the actor went on to make The Broken Melody for Hall. This was the first of. Hall was enthusiastic about the project because of his love for the tropics, although budget considerations meant most of the film had to be shot in the studio, with only the second unit going to Thursday Island under Frank Hurley. Hurley shot some footage at Port Stephens and Broken Bay. Cinesound built one of its largest sets to recreate Thursday Island. A tank was built to shoot the underwater scenes; however the water was not clear, so the scenes were shot at North Sydney Olympic Pool.

Hall would direct scenes on boats by radio. Stuart F. Doyle had resigned from Cinesound during production but was kept on to supervise the finishing of the movie. Reports of the budget ranged from £18,000 to £24,000. A charity ball was held to promote the release of the film; the film was released in both the England. It was the last Australian film sold to Britain as a British quota picture before the British quota laws were amended. Reviews were positive, the critic from the Sydney Morning Herald calling it "Australia's finest picture to date." The movie was a slight disappointment at the box office, Ken G. Hall thought this helped make Greater Union's then-managing director Norman Rydge disillusioned with feature production. Variety said it performed better in the "nabes and stix"; however Hall said in 1972. Because of the backgrounds. I'd go tomorrow to make a film about the Tropics." Lovers and Luggers in the Internet Movie Database Lovers and Luggers at Australian Screen Online Lovers and Luggers at Oz Movies