Designed by F. R. Wilson as the Sunday school for St Paul’s church in the late 1840’s and built by local builders and Masonic members, Armstrong & Hudspeth it was the last building at the east end of Prudhoe Street. Wilson was given a free hand with the design as he had worked with Anthony Salvin on the re-design of Alnwick Castle. Salvin also designed St Paul’s church.
The Sunday school is visible on an Ordnance Survey map of 1861 as the most easterly building on the street. The eastern end of Prudhoe Street had been designed in 1839 but was not completed until much later to link Clayport Street with Wagonway Road.
Before moving into the Masonic Hall, the Freemasons met in various pubs, at one point they applied to use Bondgate Tower. As well as pubs, a room above a Co-op shop in Clayport Street was used as well as a room above what is now the Tavern Restaurant in the Market Place.
In 1881 the church built a new Sunday school next to the church and sold off the old building to the Alnwick Masons and in 1885 they applied to have plans approved for an extension which is the part that now sits east to west.
Alnwick Lodge 1167 can boast one of the oldest surviving sets of minute books in the United Grand Lodge of England dated back to 1701, but because of irregular attendance and lack of support the Lodge closed in 1824. However, in 1867 it was issued with a new Warrant. In September 2017 it celebrated its 150th anniversary. Notable members include Henry George, Earl Percy (7th Duke of Northumberland) who also became the Right Worshipful Provincial Grand Masters of Northumberland and Sir Edward Grey (later Viscount Grey of Falloden).