Inside the People's Institute as work starts in Kirkcaldy landmark after five-year closure

The door to 1 Glasswork Street leads up a winding staircase where the green floor represents the baize of the snooker tables on the floor above, and the different colours of the balls are etched into the railing as you turn the corner

But it is - or was - much more than a snooker club.

The People’s Institute is part of Kirkcaldy’s heritage. A place where all were equal and all were equally welcome. A place born out of the temperance movement which also embraced the age of the internet before the doors closed after lockdown.

Now, five years on, work is underway to usher in a new era for a building which can trace its own history back through the centuries. There is much to be done to tackle its decline, and for James Herd, it is a bitter sweet moment.

He said: “It is upsetting to see the state it is in, but it is great to know it is being used again and hearten ing to see the building is being tended to.”

Contrary to popular belief he never owned the building. He was its manager, its secretary and one of its three trustees who oversaw its operations, but he is adamant - the building belongs to the people.

But no-one spent more time in it, working 24/7 since taking the helm in 1992.

Now he watches as Kirkcaldy based company, Virtum Limited, begins a year-long process of turning its upper floors into flats, with plans to open up the first floor to make it a snooker venue once again under a new operator.

Corridor floors have been ripped up and replaced, and work started to tackle the decline of the last five years. The main hall still has several tables in pristine condition under their dust covers, while boxes of snooker balls sit next to cues, and the old-school wooden scoreboards.

The extent of the renovations needed are clear at the back of the room where there is no floor and you can see down to the lower level at the back of the building.

The caretaker’s flat - which was once home to Kirkcaldy’s first internet cafe - still has its cast iron bath in situ, while the circular marks on the wall are a reminder of the clocks which once told the time in places as far flung in Tokyo, New York and Honolulu; a nod to Sir Sanford Fleming, the remarkable Kirkcaldy engineer and inventor who created international time zones.

The distinctive coombed, chevron-boarded ceiling remains above what is now a hard hat area, and that sense of history sits at the heart of a C-listed building which can trace its origins back to its days as a coaching inn that pre-dates the creation of the People’s Institute in 1865.

It was formed as the Kirkcaldy Peoples Club and Institute for the social, mental and moral welfare and recreation of its members - “for the advancement of the arts, heritage, culture or science" and "the advancement of public participation in sport.”

The institute was created under its original constitution of equality for all, promoting the Karl Marx ethic of a classless society.

Its history goes much wider than simply snooker. It can trace its roots back to Bell Inn Wynd which linked the High Street to Hill Street, and it was the town’s subscription library with its own reading room with newspapers - just the quality titles - before Michael Nain’s funding led to the creation of the central library that exists to this day.

There were lectures staged there and if you were studying any particular topic, you could ask for a magazine to be ordered. The committee would consider any requests, with the publications then donated to the library once your studies were concluded.

The decline of the subscription library, and its revenue, saw the committee move into snooker and create the facility which was to attract people across many generations to pick up a cue.

Its cafe thrived, employing half a dozen youngsters and three part-time cooks - all out of its small kitchen - while the social side saw bus trips organised for members, but the club was open to all, provided you adhered to its ethos.

By 1992 the club was on its uppers, and James found himself at the helm.

“It had two weeks to go, and at a committee meeting, I piped up and said I would take it on,” James said. “When I took over it was in a poor stare. A lot of work was needed to bring it up to an acceptable standard - I wanted the best cloth in the tables. Table six was the best table in Fife.

“And I met so many great people over the years. It was incredible - people who have enriched my life, I believe I was meant to be there.

“But the most crucial thing was the People’s Institute had equality at its heart from the start. It was the first club in Kirkcaldy to promote sex equality - women had the same rights as men.”

Look up and the outline of the figures in the window show both sexes; another nod to its unique ethos.

“It was much more than a snooker hall,” said James. “It had charity status because it was part of the temperance movement. We never had alcohol, so players had a pie in the cafe and then nip across the road to the Penny Farthing for a pint!”

It was also the first to ban smoking before it became law - a bold move given that snooker halls were synonymous with a pall of smoke around the tables.

But across the generations, and through all its changes, its ethos never wavered. All are equal. All are equally welcome.