Where was the Meeting House?

This 1896 OS map shows the Mission Hall, but is tantalizingly vague about which building is intended.

Is it the building to the right of the word “Hall”
– 4 Main Street, the current site of Rankin’s Café?

Or is it the building immediately beneath the “ll”in Hall
– 14 Main Street – Davidson’s buildings?

The building at 4 Main Street is not shown in the 1855 OS map, lending weight to the location being in Davidson’s Buildings.

(Further research into title deeds might determine the exact building.)

Inns and Temperance

The article cited above states that the Meeting House was formerly an inn, but this does not mean that it was, or was owned, by either the Albert Hotel (originally the Hope Tavern) or the Ferry Bridge (Originally the Roxburgh Arms).

The New Statistical Account of Scotland, 1845, includes the following entry concerning Inns in the parish of Inverkeithing.

“lncluding the back shops of grocers, there are 23 houses in the burgh where spirits may be bought in small quantities, and drunk upon the premises. Two of them only are inns for the reception and entertainment of travellers. In the North Ferry, there are 13 such places, including the great inn, and a secondary one . . . ; but some of these are required to accommodate passengers at North Ferry, and travellers upon the public road from Edinburgh to Perth and lnverness.” [The population of the village was about 450 in the 1840s.]

Not everyone was enamoured with the ready availability of alcohol, and a Temperance Society, or Total Abstinence Society was established in the 1850s

The Dunfermline Press of June 1859 reports:

Temperance Pleasure Excursion.
“On Monday, the members of the Total Abstinence Society. North Queensferry, enjoyed their first excursion trip. The place chose was Stirling, whither upwards of 120 of them were conveyed in the good steam-ship “Venture” at an early hour in the morning. [they arrived in Stirling at 7:30 am!] We have said that the above excursion was under the auspices of the Temperance Society of North Queensferry, and we may add that, in the annals of the village, we can find no trace of a predecessor; in fact, until the committee of the Society, with commendable energy, and most untiring zeal, took the matter up, the thing was altogether unknown.”

The new Temperance Society was chaired by Provost Robert Robertson; they held weekly meetings in the Meeting Hall.

Dunfermline Press: Thu Jun 30 1859
The usual weekly meeting of the Temperance Society. Provost Robertson in the Chair.
James Anderson – teacher – gave a reading on the Social Condition in Scotland in the Twelfth Century.
Mr H T Howat – divinity student – gave a reading of his Temperance tract entitled “The Curse of the Village.”