THE first photograph in this week’s trip down West Fife’s Memory Lane is from July 1990 and shows McDonalds on the north side of Dunfermline High Street when it occupied the building that was once the National Commercial Bank of Scotland.

Today, it is the site of Bob & Berts café. Michelle Davidson remembers working there: “I worked there from 1996 till 2000 and loved every minute of it. Loved working in Dunfermline when you could finish your shift and do Christmas shopping in the High Street instead of online. It was a fab place to work –lots of fun and mischief.”

Linda Conway remembers its predecessor ‘Wimpy’: “Wimpy’s in the late 1970s was down Guildhall Street across from the Guidhall Arms pub. My Aunt Agnes worked there and made the best burgers that were made in full view of the customers – favourite place to enjoy a burger.”

Barry Keilloh also worked in McDonalds: I started as a crew member in December 1989 when it opened, as a fresh-faced teen – only 17. Worked in the store with some fantastic people.”

At one stage, both major burger chains had a presence on the High Street and our next photograph, from July 1992, shows them opposite each other, with work taking place to pedestrianise the High Street, as reported in the Press on Christmas Day 1992: "It is 13 years since the concept of the pedestrianisation of Dunfermline’s retail heart was first noted. Finally, as Christmas 1992 approaches, the dream has become a reality, with an £800,000 pedestrianised centre."

Our next photograph shows what this part of Dunfermline High Street looked like in 1940. The Regal Picture House can be seen on the left of the street just past the sign for Buttercup Dairy. The ‘Alfresco Café’ is in view just beyond the Regal, with the ‘Billiards’ signpost above the close leading down to the snooker hall known locally as ‘Joe’s’.

This extract from ‘A Boy’s Life in Townhill’, by R Wilson, gives a colourful depiction of bygone scenes outside the Regal: "Another highlight was the building of the new Regal Picture House on the High Street (now Littlewoods). The Regal was a palace in comparison to the cinema. Whilst waiting outside to get into the pictures in those days, one was well entertained by buskers singing and dancing and playing accordions in the street, collecting coppers from the people in the queues. I also recall the strong man from Airdrie pulling a double-deck bus with a rope round his waist. Others would balance cart wheels on their forehead, lie on a bed of nails and let a stone placed on their chest be broken with a large hammer."

When the Regal was destroyed by fire, Littlewoods took over the site and our final photograph shows its premises opposite the Kingsgate Centre. Primark currently occupies that building today.

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

With thanks to Frank Connelly