Fire Station Creative

If you want lunch with an exhibition, or a weekend evening with live music, Fire Station Creative is a good one to have on your list. It’s in the old fire station on Carnegie Drive, just north of the High Street and next door to Tesco — easy to find, and a nice change of scene from the usual café or pub. The venue is a gallery, a café and a music room in one historic building, and it’s a lovely spot for a relaxed visit.

The building itself is worth a second look as you go in. Historic Environment Scotland lists it at Category B (added 12 July 1985): James Shearer, 1934, a modernist fire station with a tall parapet, a prominent training tower at the north-west corner, and the big triple entrance that once took the engines. HES calls it a well-designed 1930s modernist building, and something of a departure for Shearer, who did a lot of work for the Carnegie Trust. You can still see the character of a working station in the exterior; the venue’s own site simply calls it the old Art Deco fire station.

Fire Station Creative, a charity and social enterprise, opened here in July 2015 — opened by John Byrne, according to the venue. Fife Fire and Rescue Service had moved out in 2010, and the building, which the venue says had been on the at-risk register, belongs to Fife Council and is rented to the charity. Upstairs there are more than 30 artists’ studios — painters, printmakers, photographers, jewellers and others. Those floors are usually closed to the public, except on Open Studio weekends twice a year, which are worth looking out for if you like to see work being made.

Downstairs is the part you’ll use day to day. The café sits in the gallery, with coffee, cakes, brunch and lunch, and the venue says hot food is served until 3pm. There’s a bar on Friday and Saturday, and the official site lists live music every weekend, including free sessions, plus a new exhibition each month. Classes run in a classroom space, from life drawing to yoga, and the rooms can be hired. If you’ve got under-18s with you in the evening, check the event listing: some of the venue’s own event pages say that, because of licensing restrictions, anyone under 18 needs to leave by 8pm.

A few practical things. Opening hours are on this listing — closed Monday and Tuesday, later on Friday and Saturday. Disabled parking is on the grounds, just east of the building; the venue also points to a pay-and-display car park next door, and says Tesco allows two hours of free customer parking. It’s a short walk from the High Street, and handy for the bus station. Check the official site for what’s on, and for Open Studio dates, before you go.