Bellville

The above photograph shows the newly-completed 'Bellville', on Emsdorf Street and original owners William and Isabella Bethune, with two of their children. As the notice below (from the Fife Free Press of 24 November 1894) shows, the detached house was built to the specifications of Mr Bethune and the architect, John Murray of Kirkcaldy. Presumably the house was completed in 1895, at a time when the first of the new feus in Lundin Links were being built upon and the Post Office was under construction.

An advertisement for the house from 1928 described it as having two public rooms and six bedrooms, as well as a maid's room, kitchen, scullery, etc, bathroom and electric light.  Those of you familiar with the house will know that the house now has two bay windows at the front, rather than the one as pictured above.  Also some will recall the shop that was added to the right side of the house (possibly in the late 1920s/early 1930s after the sale mentioned above), that projected forward into the front garden.  The image at the foot of the post shows the shop, just to the left of the two chatting ladies in the doorway on the far right. At the time of the addition of the shop, the bay window was moved from the right side to the left side of the frontage.  Decades later, when the shop building was demolished, a new bay was added back on to the right side, making a symmetrical pair of bay windows for the first time - almost a century after the house was initially constructed.

Many thanks for John Band for both the photograph of Bellville and the information about the house.