Shops and Banks

This detail from an early 1930s postcard shows quite clearly the parade of shops on Leven Road, Lundin Links.  There's a lot going on in the scene - the boy with golf clubs, someone walking a dog, umbrellas hanging outside a shop, a car and motorbike parked up and the price boards propped up on the wall. Working from left to right, we have the Post Office, the National Bank of Scotland, the butcher, Somerville the grocer, the British Linen Bank, Mrs Gulland's drapers, Lundie Tearooms (owned by Mrs Gulland's daughter, Louisa May) and the Commercial Bank. At this time, the sub-postmaster was J.L. Duncan and the butcher's was in the hands of Thomas Alexander Borthwick. The presence of three banks within such a short stretch in a village was unusual. Now of course there are none left. Below is a notice from just weeks into World War Two, when all three banks restricted their opening hours (Fife Free press 21 October 1939).