International visitors at Adam Smith heritage centre in Kirkcaldy before doors re-open

The long road back from an pandemic-enforced closure ended on Friday as the Adam Smith Global Foundation brought 1 Adam Smith Close back into the public domain.

With a new new team at the helm - Dr Gordon Povey is the new general manager, and Justyna Majewska centre manager - it aims to tap into the global interest in the renowned economist and philosopher, and make the venue a destination for visitors to Fife.

The exhibition has bene updated and now has a small retail section showcasing the Lang Toun’s famous potteries, and visitors can buy, as well as see, the items on show. The adjacent gardens have also been opened up to host a number of small events with plans to create direct access to them from the building to create a new community hub in the heart of the town centre.

Dr Povey described the opening as the latest step in a year of progress.

“We delivered our Festival of Ideas, held events in the garden, and the centre is open again,” he said. “We have also established Friends of Adam Smith in America and we are digitising the heritage trail here for people to explore and follow in Smith’s footsteps.

“And we are more than just a heritage centre, We now have a small amount of retail where we want to have items for sale relating to Smith and also showcase our local heritage. What you can see here you can also buy – we want a centre that is attractive and different to what others venues do.”

In the days before the heritage centre opened, several international visitors turned up on the doorstep, underlining Smith’s appeal - and the potential audience to tap into. There have been visitors from Vienna, an economics professor from South Korea who had travelled from London specifically to see smith’s roots, and a Harvard professor.

“These visitors are here,” said Dr Povey. “We need to tap into that market. Adam Smith is known world wide, and is an amazing asset to Kirkcaldy. People come here because of him - we know that from the small sample of visitors who have dropped in even before we opened.

“The number of people who want to come here to find our more about him, and talk his work, is encouraging. He would have walked in his mother’s garden which is open once again, and been in this building while writing the Wealth of Nations.”

The centre’s initial retail operation showcases samples of pottery all made in the town. It features items from J. Buist & Son, who were based Sinclairtown, as well as Methvens which was based in the Links and once operated 13 kilns.

George Hunter, treasurer of Fife Pottery Society, said: People think of lino and linen, but the potteries were a huge industry. The display is great to see and to make it available for locals and visitors.”

The centre was restored a decade ago and turned into a small museum with office space for the global foundation. The £700,000 funding to get it started came from Fife Council, Historic Scotland and the Fife Environment Trust, and a £292,000 injection from the Coastal Communities Fund announced by the then UK Communities Secretary Eric Pickles MP on a visit in 2014.