Former St Leonard’s Works

The former St Leonard’s Works, on Bothwell Street at Erskine Beveridge Court, is the Italianate office and warehouse of what was once Dunfermline’s largest damask factory. Historic Environment Scotland records that Erskine Beveridge opened one of the town’s first power-weaving factories here in 1851, using water from the Lyne Burn for its steam engines, and that it was the largest at the time. He was, the listing says, something of an enlightened employer: the works had a school, built in 1860, for employees’ children, and a library for the workers themselves.

The building you see housed the offices — including the design office — together with warehouses and showrooms. A large addition of 1883, built by Beveridge’s sons to the east of this block, was the only part of the extensive factory still standing when the works closed in 1989; the office and warehouse had already shut in 1983. The office and warehouse block was later converted to flats, which is why this is a residential address now, not a factory you can tour.

It’s Category B listed, and the craftsmanship of the Italianate front is the reason to stop on Bothwell Street even if you can’t go in. Together with Pilmuir Works, it’s the most visible reminder of the damask trade that shaped 19th-century Dunfermline. There are no visitor hours, because it is no longer a works. Look at the front, remember the school and the workers’ library, and treat it as a home to people living in a converted factory, not as a museum.