Nestled between Master Cobbler and Waterstones on 99 Market Street, you might have noticed a new opening: Smedley Fine Art. While the ‘old-fashioned’ lettering that transports you back to an Edwardian Britain might not look amiss in our little town, the story behind the shopfront might surprise you.  There’s something slightly surreal about walking into a fine art gallery, in a location as coveted as Market Street, and being greeted by someone you could just as easily be sitting next to...

Ramadan in St Andrews unfolds in shared spaces: a makeshift prayer hall in the Chaplaincy and disposable plastic sheets that line the floors at iftar . These sheets, known as dastarkhan  in Persian or Sufra  in Arabic, reflect a long-standing Islamic tradition of sitting on the floor together to eat — a practice believed to carry greater barakah , or blessings, by virtue of the fact that it equalises everyone and reduces physical distance.  With no mosque, there isn't a dedicated space to...