The Lundin Estate was owned by Standard Life Assurance Company between 1852 and 1872. The next few posts will examine why the estate was purchased, what the company did with estate and why it was sold twenty years later. The Edinburgh-based company dates back to 1825 and had experienced great growth by the early 1850s. However, at that time low interest rates compelled the company to look at new types of investment, including investment in land, property and transport. The company manager William Thomas Thomson (pictured) proposed in 1852 that Standard Life should buy land which would both yield rents and perhaps produce a capital gain. The estate of Lundin and Aithernie fitted the bill in terms of land which could potentially be developed for housing, within striking distance of the capital city and on the coast, with tourism possibilities. Critically, a new railway line was in the pipeline and only a few years away.
On 27 May 1852, The Fife Herald reported that Captain Wemyss sold the estate for £90,000, and in the same newspaper column it was stated that "the Leven Railway Bill" had been passed. And so, with a suitable piece of real estate bought, Standard Life could begin planning how to make this investment realise its potential. The plans turned out to be grand ones. A whole new garden suburb was to be added on to the pre-existing village of Lundin Mill/Emsdorf, with streets of large detached villas, a hotel, a church and a new school. In the next post, much more detail on these plans and how the Lundin Links we know today could have been a completely different place, had these plans come to fruition.
On 27 May 1852, The Fife Herald reported that Captain Wemyss sold the estate for £90,000, and in the same newspaper column it was stated that "the Leven Railway Bill" had been passed. And so, with a suitable piece of real estate bought, Standard Life could begin planning how to make this investment realise its potential. The plans turned out to be grand ones. A whole new garden suburb was to be added on to the pre-existing village of Lundin Mill/Emsdorf, with streets of large detached villas, a hotel, a church and a new school. In the next post, much more detail on these plans and how the Lundin Links we know today could have been a completely different place, had these plans come to fruition.
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