Recent blog posts looked at guide books on Largo dating to the 1930s and the 1940s. This post looks at the more modern 1980s take on the tourist information booklet and contrasts this with its forerunners. Above is the front cover of the 1988 guide entitled "All About Lundin Links, Lower Largo, Upper Largo and Surrounding Villages". Like earlier guides it features the Robinson Crusoe statue prominently on the cover, although this time the statue shares the cover with other images.
This guide, which was also a black and white publication as side from the cover, is richly illustrated with photos and adverts. A short series of three blogs will cover its contents - beginning with the content on Lundin Links. The photograph below of Leven Road shows the Royal Bank of Scotland on the right at the beginning of the stretch of shops - most of which had adverts within the guide.
Below are the featured advertisements for the Post Office, Lundie Salon and the Paperbox. At the time, the Post Office was also a General Store selling bakery goods, fruit and veg and other groceries. The Post Office closed several years ago and the premises is now occupied by gift shop Penny and Black. A mobile Post Office now serves the villages. The Lundie Salon remains to this day at 5 Leven Road. The Paperbox newsagent at 17 Leven Road is now branded Premier Convenience Store. Back in the eighties, the shop offered video hire along with the usual morning rolls and paper deliveries.
Other local businesses featured were Bob's Butchers at 7 Leven Road, run by Bob Kirkcaldy, and Hogan's Bar on Emsdorf Street. The building that was Hogan's had previously been a shop and snack bar. Now the building is a private dwelling. The butcher's shop is now a branch of Stuart's Bakers and Butchers.
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Also among the Lundin Links based adverts was one for Elisabeth's ladies' and babies' clothing shop and one for the golf professional, David Webster. At the time, Elisabeth's was located in the small premises on Crescent Road, that had previously been the bank manager's garage and a temporary bank and went on to be The Finishing Touch curtains and blinds supplier. Eventually, Elisabeth's did move to larger premises round the corner on Leven Road.
Mercury Motors also featured in the brochure, highlighting its specialism for MGBs at the time. The business is still running today. Of course the two hotels in the village - the Old Manor Hotel and the Lundin Links Hotel - had placed adverts, and in addition there was one for A. Kirk, Joiner.
The photo below also appeared in the guide, showing the play park next to the Common. The play equipment here has been upgraded and altered a couple of times since then and an inclusive playpark with accessible play equipment now exists on the opposite side of the road down to the Sports Club. This was opened in June 2019.
So, the 1980s tourist guide book was much more visual that those from half a century before which were more formal and text heavy. There were some paragraphs included in the modern brochure about the history of the area but these were brief and the focus was firmly on promoting events taking place over the summer months and on local businesses offering services to visitors. In the next post - Upper Largo information from the booklet.
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