Doors set to close at one of Kirkcaldy High Street’s most distinctive shops

Methuselah’s antique and vintage collectables shop in the east end of the High Street will shut at the end of the month ahead of the premises being sold.

Methuselah’s, run by John Sinclair, has been part of the High Street since 2020 when he moved into the building at 310 High Street, best known as the former GT Coventry tobacconist which was run by the late Maclean John Dorward, one of the High Street’s true characters.

Mr Sinclair is selling off all stock and furnishing before the doors close, and is looking at a possible online operation as his next step.

Methuselah’s has been part of the Lang Toun across the past three decades. Mr Sinclair, originally from Pathhead, first operated out of premises in Commercial Street - he had a stall at the Barras in Glasgow before that - and then moved into the town centre in the shop which was formerly Forth Music in 1997, across the road from his current base. He also spent time in the Olympia Arcade.

A pop-up shop in the former HSS Hire Shop next to the flats at the harbour’s Williamson’s Quay generated a positive response, prompting him to move into the former tobacconist’s with his distinctive wood carved frontage. The premises had sat empty since the passing of Mr Dorward in 2016 at the age of just 60.

His death marked the end of one of the country’s longest-surviving tobacconists which has been there since 1906. His interest in tobacco led him to buy Coventry’s tobacconists in 2002 and he combined this with his love of books by adding a second hand and antiquarian book section to the shop.

He developed the business over the next 14 years, drawing customers from all over Scotland as well as overseas. Many Americans bought their Cuban cigars from him, and many of his customers became friends. A highly distinctive figure in the High Street, he studied many subjects in depth and also did wood carving - he made the sign outside the shop.