1930s Shops in Lower Largo - Part 3

Following on from Part 1 and Part 2 about shops in Lower Largo in the 1930s, here is the third and final piece in the series. This one focuses on the east end from the Orry to the Temple and features four businesses.  Right next to the Orry on the sea side of the main street was the Marina Cafe (cream coloured building on right below). Across the road, at the foot of Donaldson's Wynd (now Durham Wynd) was Bonny Bay Bakery (red sandstone building on the left below). Several doors down from that was a greengrocer/general store with a back room chip shop. And finally way along at the Temple was a small sweetie shop.

The Marina Cafe was another enterprise by the Forte family. Below is a sketch of the west elevation, which can be compared with the photograph above. Beneath that are sketches of the ground floor plan before and after a 1960s expansion of the cafe. The house adjacent to the cafe to the east is 'Bower House', a crow-stepped early 18th century dwelling. If you have memories of this cafe, please comment.

Moving on to the baker's - this was run in the 1930s by Thomas Fernie. He had bought the Largo shop following the bankruptcy of previous baker there, John Smart, who has been there four years. See the advert for the business below, published in The Scotsman of 21 June 1924. There had been a bake house and shop on this site since the 1870s, when Andrew Thomson (himself the son of a master baker) established the business that he would run there for decades (he already had a Lundin Mill bakehouse).  James D. Bruce followed Thomson by 1907 and and by 1915 John W. Wilson was the baker.

Thomas Fernie's father (of the same name) was also a baker and Thomas Jr took on his father's business interests when he retired. The house connected to the bakehouse, known as Bonny Bay House, is illustrated below. The bakehouse was to the north east of the house, the shop to the south west, with a packing room to its rear. Thomas Fernie died in 1941 at the age of just 41 and was survived by his wife and daughter.

The next shop was situated just beyond the Crusoe Buildings at 109 Main Street. In the 1930s, this shop reportedly had a mix of green grocery, buckets and spades, postcards, confectionery and more. Interestingly, it seemed to transform into a fish and chip shop of an evening. It was run by Mary Kidd before she moved along the street to what would become the Post Office (now Very Crafty).

Finally, way along at The Temple - now no. 37 - was a small sweetie shop run by Miss Sharp. Adjacent to the three-storey Rollo Villa, it's hard to imagine the small cottage in the centre of the image below being at one time busy with children spending their pocket money.