DUNFERMLINE Fire Station could be converted into a contemporary arts centre after it is replaced by a new station next year.
Work is now well under way on the new £3.5 million station in Carnegie Drive, leaving a question mark over what will happen to the existing facility.
Now, it has emerged that a group of arts enthusiasts has commissioned a study into developing a creative arts centre in the city. And it is understood that their number one target is the fire station.

Dunfermline Arts Media (DAM) believes the B-listed building, which was opened in 1936, would be an ideal venue for a centre which, it says, would put Dunfermline on the cultural map.
The organisation says artists and art groups throughout the area would benefit from having a central studio and exhibition space, and it believes converting the fire station could bring real economic benefits to the town.

Not that it would need much converting, according to DAM.
“It’s almost as if the building was designed to be an arts centre,” said member Ian Moir.
DAM has commissioned a £6500 study into the creation of an arts centre somewhere in the town but it appears the fire station is seen as the favoured option.

However, what the study will say won’t be made public until it is passed on to DAM later this month.

If the Fife Council-owned fire station is seen as an ideal home for an arts centre DAM would then have to consider how to acquire it.
Doing so would come as a blow to anyone harbouring hopes of converting the building, which was designed in the Art Deco style, into a pub or nightclub ¬- a proposal that’s been hinted at in the past.

“It would be a tragedy if if became a pub,” said Mr Moir. “This building deserves better than that.

“Having a centre for the contemporary arts would really give Dunfermline, and indeed Fife, a big boost. It happens wherever centres like this are created ¬- suddenly Dunfermline would become a focal point in Scotland, and possibly even overseas, for the creative arts.
“That would be brilliant not just for people involved in the arts but for the city as a whole.”

DAM would like a building which can accommodate an exhibition space, studios, offices, a bookshop and a cafe. The group points out that the fire station is in excellent condition and there is ample parking space.

The fire station was designed by James Shearer, a Dunfermline-born architect who also worked on the covered enclosure at East End Park. He was appointed OBE in 1969 and died three years later