Continuing our look at Kirkland Place, the former double storey tenement on Main Street. The final few shops during the 1920s pictured on the left were Andrew Gilmours grocers on the far left. A woman with a baby in a shawl stands at 80 Main Street which in the mid 1920s was Daniel Dow’s Butchers shop. Next door with the Lyons Tea sign was Jessie Frasers Confectionary shop and right at the end at 76 Main Street was James Robertsons general store. All these shopkeepers were renting their premises, the business long forgotten now almost 100 years ago. The Fraser and Dow families lived in the houses above the shops.
The tenement adjoining is also now no longer there. Today, this is a vacant plot of grass. The trees in the background would be where Family Shopper is today.
If you look closely, you’ll see a gap between the double storey tenements (next to Roberston’s shop). In the 1890’s, in the middle of Main Street, in line with this gap used to be a water pump, but had been removed by the 1910s. The gap led through to an open area which contained machinery for Dan Dow’s butchers. Beyond this, was a track leading down to the former Hospital for Infectious Diseases, near the Cemetery.
Of course Kirkland Place went on to have many different businesses over a further 6 or 7 decade. Some of this detail has been mapped out in readiness for writing in more detail about Main Street in due course.
Today, the whole scene looks like this.
