I noticed some time ago that the postcard below showed a roofless row of houses in the background on Largo Road. The image must date from around 1905 and I've zoomed in on the houses in question in the upper image. There appears to be three neighbouring homes with exposed rafters and empty looking windows. Too old looking to be under construction, unlikely to be undergoing simultaneous re-roofing and no obvious sign of fire....these buildings are not there today, so I thought perhaps these homes were awaiting demolition.
The mystery was fully answered in a passing comment within the memoirs of Esther Menzies (published in 1974). She explained about this section of the street....
"It was a derelict "feu f'an" they called it. The feu hadn't been paid and the heirs were said to be in Ireland. The houses were about where the police station is. A few of us went in one night. We climbed the rickety stairs, handled the rusty branders and other cooking utensils, touched the old sticky treacle tins, gradually grew silent and crept out."
Who knows how long these lay empty or at what stage the roofs were removed, but these abandoned homes were eventually demolished and replaced with the police house and other houses.
The mystery was fully answered in a passing comment within the memoirs of Esther Menzies (published in 1974). She explained about this section of the street....
"It was a derelict "feu f'an" they called it. The feu hadn't been paid and the heirs were said to be in Ireland. The houses were about where the police station is. A few of us went in one night. We climbed the rickety stairs, handled the rusty branders and other cooking utensils, touched the old sticky treacle tins, gradually grew silent and crept out."
Who knows how long these lay empty or at what stage the roofs were removed, but these abandoned homes were eventually demolished and replaced with the police house and other houses.
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