As early as 1896, Professor Kennedy (of Messrs Kennedy and Jenkins) proposed a joint venture for both power and tramways in Kirkcaldy. In 1898 he was appointed as consultant engineer, by the newly formed Tramways and Electric Light Committee. His proposal was to build a power staion on Victoria Road, in Kirkcaldy.
The Old Victoria Power Station, Kirkcaldy
The main contractors were J & P McLauchlan of Larbert, but building was hindered by the difficulty of obtaining sufficient stone from Grange Quarry, at Burntisland, as well as the necessity for digging engine beds to a depth of 10ft. Three boilers and five engines (2 at 80hp and 3 at 250hp) were supplied by Browett, Lindley & Co Ltd.
The Victoria Road Power Station first generated electricity on 15th December, 1902, and was formally opened on 28th February, 1903 when the power was officially switched on by Provost Tait at 3pm. Guests from this ceremony were then driven in carriages to Gallatown to inspect the new tramway depot, and returned to town on a tram. The first service tram was run on Monday 2nd March, 1903. In 1909 the gallery was extended and a store added, a cooling tower was built in 1912 and a new engine room in 1922. The power station shut in 1931, and appears to have been derelict ever since then.
The Old Victoria Power Station Entrance
There have been plans to demolish the building and then use the site for an old peoples home and small supermarket. Thankfully ‘Historic Scotland’ stepped in and objected to the plan.
Another View of the Old Victoria Power Station
But now the owners of the building, United Investments, have put the building up for sale, for the nominal price of £1, as Historic Scotland is adamant in its position that the facade of the building be retained. The developers are saying that this will cost millions of pounds (I’m not a builder, but I can’t see why a facade would cost so much to preserve, the rest of the building will be demolished anyway), and at least one councillor (George Kay) has quoted that he believes the whole building should be demolished.
The top half of the Victoria Power Station Building
I, for one, am hoping that an investor will see the beauty of this historic building, and at least preserve the outside of the Victoria Power Station.
Fife Photos & Art 
I hate to see the demise of historic buildings, but this one looks a bit daunting to restore – even if just the facade. The stone is beautiful – I am glad you included a color image to compare.
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Unfortunately Lori, it seems to be something Fife Council are quite good at, losing or demolishing historic and old buildings. I’ve just been chatting to someone who knows a local builder, who has preserved the fronts of a view of the older buildings in the area, and he reckons it adds an extra 15% to the cost of each project…………….he then easily gets that back, because people are happier paying a higher price to live in what appears to be a historic building. What I’m worried about, is that a developer will buy the place for a pound, then mysteriously the whole building will be demolished, and basically they will have got the land worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, just for the single pound…………this sort of thing has been known in our area!
Glad you liked the photos too 🙂
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I, too, am glad you included the color. Although I do like keeping old buildings, in some cases it’s probably too much, in cost, time, effort, etc.
janet
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It appears that it will only add something like 15% to the total cost of the whole project to preserve the facade of the building Janet 🙂
I reckon thats a small price to pay to preserve a beautiful building with a wonderful history behind it……………any builder/developer buying the land initially for a pound, will easily recoup those extra costs, and make a tidy sum in profit afterwards!
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I hope so, too.
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Great shots. I actually didn’t know the history of this building. I wish more renovation projects were forced to maintain facades. It’s a way of carrying the past into the future as well as an act of preservation. I suspect it’s awkward site access and connecting old and new that escalates the cost and then things get demolished for budget purposes. I hope they stick to their guns about the facade.
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Thank you Laura 🙂 I didn’t know the history of the building either, not until last week. It would be wonderful if all renovation projects were enforced to keep the facades of these wonderful old buildings, like you said, carrying the past into the future. If only the general mentality nowadays wasn’t ‘how can we maximise the profits’ instead of ‘how can we provide future generations with links to their past and culture’!!
Whoever does eventually develop the site, you can guarantee they will make lots of money out of it either way, just by preserving the facade, their profits may be slightly reduced
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How sad that it has been left to rot like that for so long! I note your comments about “accidental” demolitions, add to that mysterious fires – we’ve had a few of both in Glasgow too in our scandalously neglected buildings.
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I forgot about the mysterious fires, they happen over here too Anabel 😦 (Leslie House springs to mind https://fifephotosandart.wordpress.com/2015/12/15/cees-fun-photo-challenge-metal-wood-late-entry/)
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Oh yes, I see I made a similar comment on that one too! It’s disgraceful.
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Sadly Anabel, you’re totally correct, it is disgraceful!
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This looks like such a beautiful building! You would have to hope whoever buys it can see the value, as you pointed out above, of selling that historic charm. But these days that seems to happen more rarely – here in Phoenix we have a particular problem with historic buildings disappearing “accidentally” – fires, mistaken demolition dates, etc. It’s just so unfortunate all around.
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It seems to be a world wide problem Meredith, Anabel (Marsh) was saying the identical thing to you in the comment above, but she was talking about Glasgow 😦
At some point in the future, hopefully things will change……………….the world as a whole will have to stop putting money and greed first, otherwise future generations will be living in a very bleak place!!!
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