Above is a 'then and now' comparison of the west end of Lower Largo's Main Street. In the black and white 1960s view, cars are parked on the left side of the street, leaving the right side clear for pedestrians. Nowadays cars only park on the right and spaces are generally at a premium. Several attics have been converted during the period between the two pictures, with dormer windows added to a few homes. In the middle distance, the height of Alexandra House (where the Rio Cafe was) has increased over time. That extra storey was added in 1965, dating the postcard to before then. The Crusoe Hotel comes into view at the end of the street then and now.

Close inspection of the detail in the distance reveals the 'Wall's' ice-cream sign that hung outside Potter's Newsagent on Defoe Place. There newspapers, groceries and postcards were on sale and there was a Post Office and a public telephone inside. In fact, the early 1960s postcard featured was probably bought from this shop, as the sender was based directly over the street at Edina View (where a cross marks their location). The reverse side of the postcard is shown below. It is stamped 22 August 1967 and was sent to Kent.  An X marks the 'boys bedroom' in the upper flat within Edina View, The message reads:

This is a new card I have got - not great but it shows the back of our house. Weather just grand - only 3 wet days so far. On the beach since 10am this morning except for lunch time at Crusoe. Just off to phone you and it is still glorious. Bob off today, Mr and Mrs L here for 10 days. Love to all, Muriel and gang.

It sounds very much like a holiday maker that is writing but the birth notice below from the Leven Mail in December 1961 suggests that Bob and Muriel were full-time residents of 2 Edina View. 
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Annotated in the image below are Edina View (1), Rock View (2) and Beach House (3). These flats had long been a popular venue for summer visitors, having been built for Andrew Selkirk in phases circa 1890, on the site of some old and run down properties. Lists of summer visitors - like the example further below from 25 August 1898 Leven Advertiser - show their popularity at the time with folks escaping the city for a few weeks. 
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The Belmont Temperance Hotel, pictured in the centre of the image above, once stood adjacent to Largo railway station. The snippet above from the 8 August 1890 East of Fife Record, details the circumstances that would eventually lead to the building of the hotel. The piece highlighted the "enormous" demand for accommodation in Largo but also pointed out the lack of options for those looking for only a short stay. While a couple of hotels existed, these had a small number of rooms, plus, these were "licensed premises" and many visitors at the time would have objected to that. 

The temperance movement, which encouraged abstinence from alcohol, had been established for decades. The local lodge of the Independent Order of Good Templars - the Robinson Crusoe Lodge - had been established in 1872 and was still very active in 1890. Lundin Mill had once had its own small Temperance Hotel. Against this backdrop, a proposal was made to build a new temperance hotel. Specifically, it was to be close to the beach at Lower Largo. By the summer of 1890 it was thought that a suitable site at Drummochy had been identified. However, that particular plan did not come to fruition and teetotal visitors had to wait a little longer.

There was no record of a temperance hotel in the census of 1891 but by July 1893, the local papers were listing summer visitors staying at the Belmont Temperance Hotel on its elevated position between Largo Station and the north side of Main Street. A storm in August 1893 resulted in a Norwegian vessel running aground at the Temple. Her crew were given hospitality at the Belmont Hotel under the care of hotelkeeper Mary Carswell. The 1895 valuation roll shows that Andrew Masterton, joiner, was the property owner, suggesting that he was responsible for its construction. 

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The 1 April 1903 Scotsman newspaper ran the small advert above stating that the hotel was "under new management". A W Urquhart was named as proprietor. However, by 1906, it was all change once again when there was another auction of furniture from the hotel (see notice below from 26 April 1906 Leven Advertiser).

Finally, a period of stability began when Miss Margaret Pippet Sawyer and Miss Mary Elizabeth Sawyer took over the Belmont in 1906. The sisters were born in the English coastal town of South Shields and were daughters of a mariner turned hotelier. Before coming to Largo they had lived in both Leith and North Berwick (where the family had run a temperance hotel). The article above detailed one of their early bookings at the Belmont - a tea party for a temperance group (30 June 1906 Fife Free Press). The advert below dates to their era. At the time that the 1911 census was taken, a 29-year-old Margaret Sawyer (also known as Marguerite) was the only resident at the Belmont Hotel. She and her sister later moved to Elie, where they ran various holiday accommodation over the years, both eventually marrying.

The 1920 valuation roll had Mrs J MacDougall and Miss J MacDougall as tenants with Catherine Clayton still the property owner. The 1921 census tells us that this was Jessie MacDougall and her daughter Jessie Mary. Also present for the census were four visitors and a servant (house and table maid). In December 1921 the wedding reception of the only daughter of the minister of Largo Baptist Church, Rev. Pulford, took place at the hotel. The hotel was advertised for sale in both 1920 and in 1922 (but apparently never sold as Catherine Clayton was still listed as owner in 1925). 

By summer of 1923 the hotel was under new management with Hugh and Janet McLean taking over the reins. During their time in charge, the Scottish colourist George Leslie Hunter was a guest on more than one occasion. Hunter's choice of a Temperance hotel is significant as his friend, art dealer and biographer, Dr Tom J Honeyman was a big supporter of the Temperance Movement. It's fascinating to imagine such a well-known artist producing familiar artworks featuring local scenes from this base - his hotel room full of his art materials, rough sketches and works in progress. 

​The story of the Belmont came to an abrupt end in the early hours of Friday 22 January 1926, when the hotel was gutted by fire. Only Hugh and Janet McLean and their child were occupying the hotel at the time. The "magnitude of the blaze attracted many spectators" in what was a unique spectacle for Largo. Later the same day the report below appeared in the Dundee Evening Telegraph.
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The side by side maps below show the hotel in 1912 when still standing (left) and the equivalent site in the 1960s (right) when the empty outline of the shell of the building was still marked on maps. The hotel building outline with its sea-facing bay windows is in the centre of the map extracts (below the F.B. which marks the foot bridge over the railway line). Further below are images of some traces of the old hotel which remain on the foot path up to the car park at the old station. A modern private dwelling, aptly named Belmont House, now occupies the plot of the former hotel.
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The above photograph shows detail from a George Washington Wilson image of the beach at Lundin Links captured in 1899. The houses of Leven Road are in the background, next to Fir Park, and the under-construction Ravenswood and Elmwood is on the right. In the foreground is the beach with the dunes and golf course behind and, perched in a sheltered dip between the dunes, is a row of wooden huts. At the time, these were referred to as 'bathing coaches'. The piece below from 20 January 1909 Leven Advertiser tells of how these came to grief when they were "tossed about in all directions" during a winter storm. 

Bathing coaches or bathing machines were forerunners to beach huts. The concept dates back to the early eighteenth century when it solved the twin issues protecting the modesty of bathers and of getting the sick and infirm into the cold salt water that was deemed to be good for their health. Bathing coaches were basically a wooden hut on wheels - a mobile changing room - pulled between the shore and the sea with the tide, often by a horse. Bathers would pay a hire fee to make use of the facility for the day or part-day.

Largo had long been known as a 'sea-bathing resort' and it would have become apparent during the Victorian era that the provision of bathing coaches was expected by visitors. Summer visitors from Edinburgh would have been familiar with the bathing machines used at Portobello (pictured below, from the Canmore collection). Bathing coaches were also available in larger places within Fife, such as St Andrews and Kirkcaldy. 

At the turn of century, people visited the beach in full formal dress, as the photograph below taken at Massney Braes, with the iron bridge in the background, shows. Ladies wore full-length skirts, blouses and hats, while men donned smart trousers, jackets, shirts and ties. Changing into swimming attire was awkward and time-consuming. Plus, of course, it was widely seen as indecent to undress in the open. 
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The above piece from 9 August 1906 Leven Advertiser mentions both a "bathing shelter" and "bathing coaches". Below is another reference, from 15 July 1908 Leven Advertiser, to both the "coaches and shelters". Both features seem to have proved popular.

Around the time of the First World War, wheeled bathing coaches (examples of which from elsewhere are pictured above) were increasingly replaced with fixed bathing huts. While it was still frowned upon to get changed in the open, it was perhaps more acceptable to make the short dash from shore to sea in your bathing attire. By 1935 there were nearly 20 fixed bathing huts listed on the valuation roll for Largo Parish. These were all at Lundin Links shore, on a site provided by Sir John Gilmour, close to the railway station.

Used for the season rather than for the day, bathing huts became something of a status symbol. Owners of huts at Lundin Links included local well-to-do individuals, including: W. Lindsay Burns who resided at Linburn on Leven Road and was Chairman of  Henry Balfour and Company of Leven; William Moscrip of Duddingston House on Leven Road who was Managing Director of National Steel Foundry Leven Works; and George Victor Donaldson, of Stanely on Leven Road Chairman of James Donaldson and Sons timber merchant.

Many owners of boarding houses and private hotels also kept a bathing hut for the use of their guests. These included Andrew Blyth proprietor of Firpark boarding house, James Peebles Greig of Mount Vernon boarding house, John Balmer at Manderlea and Agnes Watters of Victoria Private Hotel. Above is an advert for Victoria Private Hotel. Note the mention of "private bathing boxes". When Margaret Paxton set up Fife Children's Home at Aithernie House, she also took a bathing hut for the use of her residents. In addition, several individuals from close-by Methil, Buckhaven and Leven, had bathing huts at Lundin Links, just a short train journey away. Below are a few images of local bathing huts over the years.
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The artwork above is by George Leslie Hunter the Scottish Colourist. Hunter frequented Largo in the early to mid 1920s and a previous post has looked at some of his works which are instantly recognisable as Largo. For example, he painted Largo Pier many times and also captured scenes of the Pier Pavilion, the viaduct, Drum Lodge, the beach and the flour mill at Lundin Mill. However, there are also pieces which are not immediately obvious as being Largo. The above image is one example of this. While the focus of the piece is a lady in a striking hat, there are also points of interest visible outside the window.  The annotated image below aims to interpret the features seen.
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So where was this lady sitting? I believe that this is a covered balcony on the terraced buildings originally known as "Edina View", "Rock View" and "Beach House"  (also known locally as The Barracks). The image below indicates a likely spot looking down to the curved sea wall and beyond to the pier.
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The female sitter in the distinctive hat would appear to be the same lady captured in another of Hunter's artworks - The Blue Hat (oil on canvas, 1925), shown below. The hat has the same shape and same design detail. The background again looks very much like it is Largo Bay.
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Another sketch of Hunter's (below) was also made at 'The Barracks' location. Also featuring a short-haired woman, this balcony looks a bit more open than the one in the top image but it features the distinctive railings of these flats. Properties within Edina View, Rock View and Beach House were let to summer visitors in the mid-1920s. An example advert is further below, from 29 August 1924 Scotsman. It may be that George Leslie Hunter stayed in the building on one or more of his visits. However, one venue where he certainly stayed on more than one occasion was the Belmont Hotel. He is known to have been a guest there in the summers of both 1924 and 1925. The hotel was gutted by fire in January 1926, so clearly Hunter would have resided elsewhere when he returned to Largo in summer of 1926. If you know of other Largo properties where he might have stayed - please comment. 

​Previous posts have looked at the origins of the Largo Parish Community Council and their early work on foreshore improvements around Massney Braes. Another of their endeavours was the production of a handy guide to Lundin Links and Largo for visitors. A guide book was produced each year from 1932 for at least six years and an example of this is shown above. The man responsible for compiling the guide was James Peebles Greig, a member of the LPCC.
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​James Peebles Greig was born in Duke Street, Leith on 3 April 1881, the son of gas works blacksmith George Greig who was born in Lundin Mill in 1850. James became a clerk in the Leith Town Chamberlain's Office, later marrying Jean Donaldson in Milnathort in 1910. He went on to become Town Chamberlain of Montrose between 1922 and 1930, before moving to Lundin Links, to 'take up a business opportunity'. This opportunity was to run Mount Vernon Boarding House, which was owned by his sister Agnes Peebles Watters (nee Greig).

Agnes had been widowed in tragic circumstances in 1923 but had continued to run Mount Vernon. In 1930 she took on Victoria Boarding House as well and so James and family took the helm at Mount Vernon. They remained there up until the outbreak of the Second World War. After that James worked in the Costs Office at Leven Foundry as an accountant. He was very active in various aspects of local life in Largo, including Lundin Golf Club, Largo Silver Band and of course Largo Parish Community Council. Moving from Lundin Links to Upper Largo in 1947, James Greig died on 6 September 1953 at Dunedin, 38 Main Street, Upper Largo. He was survived by his wife, a son and two daughters.

James was the natural choice for co-ordinator of the Largo Guide. With his clerical background and later interest in tourism and hospitality, he had the skills and connections to compile the content of adverts, information and a bit of flowery language to entice visitors to the 'Scottish Riviera'. The first guide went on sale in March 1932.  Printed by J. and G. Innes Ltd, Cupar, the booklet had a reproduction of Alexander Selkirk's statue on the cover and copies could be had free on application to the LPCC Secretary, Mr Charles Raeburn. The 22 March Leven Advertiser commented that "the explanatory material is both interesting and informative, while the illustrations are well produced."

Almost 1,000 copies of this first edition were distributed and £48 was raised from the advertising within the guide. Seen as a successful venture, a revised edition was produced in 1933. That year 128 copies were sent out to people that had written to the LPCC, a further 725 were distributed through the L.N.E.R railway enquiry office, 56 copies through libraries and 72 copies were sold in local shops. The Guide became an annual publication, however, by the end of the 1936 season concerns began to be raised about the decrease in income from advertising. On balance is was decided to proceed with a 1937 edition and also to place adverts in two Civil Service journals to entice civil servants to spend their holidays in Largo.

However, this may have been the final year of publication, as there were no further references to the guide book. It was also noted that repetition of the same information each year, as well as reliance upon the same people to place adverts each time, was becoming problematic. Although a local guide in this format had run its course, guide booklets for visitors continued to be produced on and off over the years in a number of different styles.

Manderlea is a substantial building on Links Road, Lundin Links, overlooking the 18th green of Lundin Golf Course. The above postcard view shows Manderlea in the inter-war years. Note the many large windows facing towards the sea. Below is a photograph showing the building today (on the far left), next to its neighbours to the east. Like several other large dwellings in the village, it began life as a boarding house, before being restyled as a 'private hotel' and ultimately undergoing conversion into flats.
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Back in 1905, when Lundin Links was experiencing a spell of development, as a fashionable summer resort, a Mr Robb commissioned Walter Horne to build an eight-bedroomed house immediately to the west of Westhall (a villa built in 1894 which had stood alone for a decade). The small insert from 11 August 1905 East of Fife Record below pinpoints the date.

​The work on this house kept Mr Horne's men busy all through the following winter and an update appeared in the 15 February 1906 Leven Advertiser (below) as the work neared completion. This specified that the house was to be a boarding house to be run by Miss Robb. In fact, the establishment was run by sisters Janet Dall Robb and Mary Ann Robb. They were the daughters of ploughman James Robb (who was born in Kilconquhar but whose mother Janet Dall was from Largo).

​The sisters had previously worked in domestic service in Edinburgh but some change in fortune seems to have enabled them to establish their own enterprise. Manderlea was ideally situated, close to the station, the golf links as well as the beach. The Misses Robb remained at Manderlea throughout the First World War, although it was unclear how the boarding house was used during that period. Perhaps the premises were used as accommodation for soldiers, as was the case at nearby St Catherine's and Fir Park. However, soon after the war ended, the boarding house passed into new ownership.
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Interestingly, the electoral register of Fife for Spring 1920 shows both Mary and Janet Robb and future owners of the boarding house, John and Jane Balmer, living at Manderlea. After this brief handover spell, the Robb sisters moved on. John Balmer and his wife Jane (nee Short) became long-term proprietors of Manderlea. The advert below appeared in the 1925 Post Office Directory.

The Balmers had married in 1904 at Coates House in Newburn, where Jane had been born in 1880. Her Dorset-born father William Short had long been the gardener there. John Balmer was born in Westmorland Cumbria and it was there that the couple initially settled there after their marriage. Eldest daughter Nora Jane Fernie Balmer was born there in 1907, followed by second daughter Phyllis in 1909. At the time of the 1911 census, John was a 'confectioner' in Cumbria.
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Several years later, the family returned to Jane's Largo roots, where John and Jane ran Manderlea for the rest of their lives. Over the decades many visitors enjoyed their hospitality and the view from Manderlea. During the Second World War Polish soldiers were billeted at Manderlea, as they were at other large houses and boarding houses in the village, such as Lindisfarne. The Misses Balmer became regular attendees at the Scottish-Polish Association events, held from the 1940s onwards.

John Balmer died at Manderlea on 17 November 1954 aged 75, with Jane passing away just two months later, also at Manderlea, on 14 January 1955 aged 74. While daughter Nora went on to marry in 1956, to Robert Gemmell, younger daughter Phyllis remained at Manderlea and was still living there when the large house was converted into five flats and renamed 'Manderlea Court' around 1974. Phyllis died in a car crash on the Leven to St Andrews road on 5 August 1989, aged 79. Nora had died in 1984 aged 76. A few years ago two of the Manderlea Court flats were combined back together. Below are images of the building from the 1970s (in black and white) and as it is today, looking very fresh and modern for a building that is now well over a century old.

With their imposing facades fronting onto Victoria Road, the symmetrical pair of double villas shown above were from left to right originally named St Margaret's, Mount Vernon, Aird Bank and St Catherine's. The former pair are dated 1897 and the latter 1896. All were built under the instruction of enterprising local joiner and contractor Walter Horne. The newspaper piece from 1 July 1897 Leven Advertiser below details the stage of the development at that time, noting that:

"Coming from the station, the eye is at once arrested by the appearance of the double villas which have been erected by Mr W. Horne. The building on the right is sold, the other is hardly complete; they are of uniform design, rounded off with turrets at each end. Behind this, Mr Archibald M. White has almost finished a handsome self-contained villa, set off with oriels on each side of the entrance."

The 'self-contained villa' mentioned as being behind the main development is Lindisfarne (obscured and unseen in the above photo). Mount Vernon (left of centre, with the turret, now 10 Links Road) was run as a boarding house from newly built. Its entrance was on Station Road (now Links Road) - as seen in the image further below.

The first owner of Mount Vernon was Liverpool-born David Simpson. His joiner and cabinet-maker father had been born in Markinch but moved to Lancashire as a young man. David junior returned to his father's place of birth and became a partner at Balbirnie Wool Mill. In 1897, he married Mary Forrester, in the Crusoe Hotel, which had been run by Mary's parents John and Jane Forrester for many years. John had died in 1896 and, while Jane had taken over the Crusoe licence initially, she soon left the hotel to run Mount Vernon as a boarding house.

At the time of the 1901 census, David and Mary Simpson were living in St Margaret's with their two infant daughters, while Mary's 73-year-old mother Jane was next door at Mount Vernon. Jane ran the boarding house with two of her other daughters, Isabella and Lucy and a couple of her grand-daughters. When Jane died in 1902 aged 74, another of her daughters, Jeannie Hodge Forrester, took over the running of Mount Vernon.

​Jeannie (who died in 1940 aged 81) continued to be in charge there until the early 1920s, when Mrs Agnes Watters became proprietrix. It is Mrs Watters' name that appears on the advert below. By 1930 Mrs Watters owned both Mount Vernon and Victoria Boarding House but Mount Vernon was rented to her brother James Peebles Greig, who ran it until 1939. I imagine that one or both properties would have had some use during the Second World War as billets for soldiers.  

So why the name 'Mount Vernon'? Well, first owner, David Simpson, was born in Liverpool. In the city there is a district known as Mount Vernon which his family lived close to. The use of this name in Liverpool dates back to circa 1800. This seems linked to the fact that, in 1799, George Washington, the first President of the United States, died. His Virginia home was named Mount Vernon.  At that time there were strong links between Liverpool and the east coast of the USA and a ship named 'Mount Vernon' regularly sailed between the two places. A road in the growing city of Liverpool became known as Mount Vernon Place and the name has continued to be used to this day. Incidentally, the reason for George Washington's home being named Mount Vernon was that George's half-brother Lawrence, who owned the property prior to him, served under Admiral Edward Vernon during the War of Jenkins' Ear and renamed his estate in honour of his former commanding officer.

The image above of 'Victoria House', as it was then styled, dates to around 1907. Described as a "boarding establishment" of the "most modern" kind in the Fifeshire Guide advertisement below. Occupying the "best site in Lundin Links", the features to note were the "Public, Dining and Smoke Rooms. Lounge, Billiard Room and South Verandah". The latter can be seen to the right of the building above on both the first and second floors.

The gardens appear to be fairly newly laid out in fine symmetrical form and neatly lined with young trees on either edge. The building stands quite alone with none of the nearby Victoria Road houses yet in place, nor the south side of Crescent Road. The nearest houses behind Victoria House at the time of this photograph were the 1850s 'cottages' on the north side of Crescent Road. Elphinstone is visible to the left and on the right are the school house and Oldfield (then called Bayview Cottage). The map further below shows the direction from which the image was taken and the absence of neighbouring buildings.

​The location of Victoria House was ideal for a boarding house - close to the station, the golf course and the beach, plus right next to the iron bridge over the railway line. Walter Horne feued this plot and built Victoria House. He continued to own it until selling to Johnston Wright Swan around 1923. Initially, however, the boarding house was let and run by Miss Agnes Brown. Victoria House went through a number of subtle name changes over the decades from Victoria House to Victoria Boarding House to Victoria Private Hotel, before becoming Victoria Court flats in the early 1970s.

The previous post looked at the summer visitors to Largo in 1875. The list back then was fairly long but nothing in comparison to later lists such as the 1910 example below. Of course between 1875 and 1910 many changes had taken place in the villages. The feuing of Lundin Links had taken off around the turn of the century. The parade of shops had become established on Leven Road. Many of these shopkeepers made a point of advertising in the local paper right alongside the list of visitors - including Miss Bremner at the Post Office, Douglas the Butcher and Lindsay's Grocer. David Lindsay also had a boot and shoe warehouse that catered for the holiday makers with footwear "for seaside, golf, bowling, tennis".

In 1875, Lundin Mill had 13 houses listed as occupied by summer visitors. By 1910 there were 95 including many multi-occupancy boarding houses and the Lundin Links Hotel. A number of leisure facilities had been laid on by 1910, including tennis courts, a bowling green and the Montrave Hall. The Lundin Golf Club was long-established but flourished with the increase in summer visitors. Many regular visitors were also members of the club. Lundin Ladies Golf Club moved to its current location around this time and no doubt was well-used by many of the holidaymakers too. 

Meanwhile in Lower Largo, the list had also lengthened by 1910 (though less dramatically) from 33 to 46. Notable developments there since 1875 included Rock View, Beach House and Edina View on the sea-side of Main Street, as well as new properties on the seafront by the Orry such as Sunnyside.  Shops here also took the opportunity to advertise, including John Nicoll the grocer and Armit the boot maker (offering sand shoes and canvas shoes).

​Edinburgh and Glasgow were definitely the main sources of visitors. All houses listed now had names - none were described as 'Mrs So-and-so's', as had been the case in 1875. With so many return visitors each year, one benefit of these lists was that families could see who else was staying and reunite with acquaintances made in previous years.

Eighty three years ago today, the snippets above appeared in the Fife Free Press in the local news update for Largo. Both short stories relate to fresh beginnings - the first to the completion of new housing and the second to a the new impending holiday season.  While the replacement of buildings happens rarely, the annual preparation for the influx of holidaymakers was part of the rhythm of life at the time. 

The "old-fashioned corner" of the village referred to in the top news item was a small section of Lower Largo's Main Street known then as 'Butters Buildings'.  James Butters was a weaver/net maker/boatman who had died late in 1934. He (and his parents James Butters and Margaret Gilchrist before him) had owned a few dwellings and a loomshop for many decades, while living opposite at 'Cliff House'.  James senior was a fisherman. He and Margaret had ten children but only  James (1860-1934) survived into adulthood.  

The replacement buildings were built by Walter Horne, who was married to a cousin of James Butters (Agnes Guthrie).  Part of the new construction later ​housed the Cockleshell Cafe. interestingly, the "old red tiles on the roofs" were reused on the new building. Red roof tiles remain there to this day (see photograph below with the buildings in question to the right behind the tree).