The first image in this week's trip down West Fife's Memory Lane is of the corner of the New Row and East Port Street.

The building with the sign 'Woolwich' above it used to be the Bank of Scotland and is now Costa coffee shop.

On the north side of East Port Street is St Margaret's Church which was demolished in 1981 to make way for the headquarters of Dunfermline Building Society, with the congregation relocating to the centre of Touch housing estate.

Named after the wife of King Malcolm Canmore, Queen Margaret, who was later canonised and made a saint, the church was opened in 1828 and was referred to as the 'Gas Kirk' as it was the first to be equipped with that form of lighting in the town.

The installation of this was carried out in spite of opposition from the weavers of the town who objected to supporting what they regarded as the capitalist enterprise of the newly established 'Dunfermline Gas Company'.

Many of the founding members of the church had been weavers who at that time were self-employed, fiercely independent, self-educated in many cases and pioneers with other working people in the radical movement to achieve reform of the political system as well as in the church.

They enjoyed a high standard of living and were influential in municipal and political affairs, being described by one writer as “aristocrats of labour”.

The street itself is often just called 'East Port' but as this extract from the Annals of Dunfermline shows, it has also long been known as 'East Port Street': 'Names of the streets to be painted on the corner houses 25th May 1809. East Port Street (known as Town's End). From East Port to Stobies'.

Dunfermline Press: Boys cleaning cars at Tower House Youth Club.Boys cleaning cars at Tower House Youth Club. (Image: Contributed)

Further along East Port Street near where the Carnegie Hall is now, was the Tower House Youth Centre. The next photograph, supplied by Dunfermline Press reader Ian Ross, shows a group of boys from the Centre cleaning cars in the nearby Viewfield Terrace car park.

Dunfermline Press: Hospital Hill, the south approach to centre of Dunfermline.Hospital Hill, the south approach to centre of Dunfermline. (Image: Contributed)

The next photograph shows the approach to Dunfermline from the south and Hospital Hill sloping down towards the 'Old Toll' pub, presently called 'The Olive Tree'.

The only vehicles to be seen in this image at that time are a bus and a horse and cart. In the intervening years the road has been widened into a dual carriageway as part of improvements to cater for the large increase in traffic.

Dunfermline Press: The Brucefield Cafe was once hugely popular.The Brucefield Cafe was once hugely popular. (Image: Contributed)

Our next photograph is of the very popular Brucefield Cafe that was situated near here on the corner of St Andrew Street.

Douglas Robertson remembers it: “I still call it the Brucefield. I used to go in each morning for sweets before going in to the High School after getting off the 55 bus from Rosyth outside the old flats before the road widening.”

The building is now occupied by the 'Everest Inn' Indian restaurant.

More photographs like these can be seen in Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries and also at facebook.com/olddunfermline.

With thanks to Frank Connelly