Practice History

The history of the Practice, originally the Rosyth Surgery, stems back to 1922 when the ‘Garden City’ was still being built and the growing number of residents was proving too much for the existing doctors in Inverkeithing. Dr John Campbell took up post as Assistant to Dr Gordon of Inverkeithing, joining him as a partner in 1923. The Rosyth Surgery was located in old farm cottages at the crossroads, 1-2 Queensferry Road but Dr Campbell also practised from a wooden and corrugated iron shed in ‘Tintown’ which still overlooked the dockyard at that time. The iron hut was moved from Tintown for use as a garden shed at ‘Tullich’, the residence and surgery of Dr Campbell who worked the practice single-handedly until joined by Dr George Gunn in 1937. ‘Tullich’, in Queensferry Road, Rosyth was built to Dr Campbell’s design on what was then open land between the railway station and the village. The surgery was enlarged after Dr Gunn’s arrival and remained part of the house until December 1972. In 1962 a bungalow, ‘Tullich Lodge’, was built in the north part of the garden and it was to these premises that the surgery moved in 1972. The building, having been extended a number of times most recently in 1995, was too small for modern general practice and so a decision was taken in 1998 to seek new premises.

A site was obtained on the car park of a former Lyle & Scott factory at Primrose Lane which itself had been converted to a ten-pin bowling alley. In June 2000 the new building was opened and the practice took the opportunity to change its’ name from the Rosyth Surgery to Primrose Lane Medical Centre thus avoiding the confusion that had existed since the Rosyth Health Centre practice had began in the town. On 12 August 2000 the opening of the Centre was officially marked by the planting of a tree in the grounds by Mrs H Dobbie, Chairman of the Rosyth Community Council in the presence of the late Rachel Squires and Scott Barrie then MP and MSP for the Dunfermline respectively.

In 2007 Thomas Mitchell Builders started a large housing development on the site of the former factory and this resulted in a change of address for the Practice because the Medical Centre car park was now entered from the new Jutland Street. Partners and staff decided to retain the practice name of Primrose Lane Medical Centre.