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I have just realised that the old touring frameset I bought has doesn't have routing lugs for the front derailleur cable.
The downtube and the top of the right-hand chainstay have lugs for the rear derailleur cable. For the other one, nothing. There's no bolt-hole underneath the bottom bracket to mount a guide either.
It's a steel Dawes Galaxy. I suppose I could drill a hole underneath the bottom bracket to mount a guide, but I'm puzzled how the cable would have originally been run.
Either Adam's suggestion or this:
If you're going with a very recent FD, like all the Shimano toggle ones and many mountain FDs in general, a lot of them have integrated stops also, so you could do the same sort of routing. Some not super recent mountain FDs have stops for full housing too. If it would play nice with whatever you're building the bike back up with, one of those options plus a bolt-on housing stop as pictured is the cleanest-looking match with what you've got, although it does have the downside that upwards opening housings are bad news in general because they invite water contamination. Most functional would be adding a nylon BB guide as you say, although not very aesthetic since having a top mounted chainstay stop marries you to the RD cable guide you've got.
I believe there have been a handful of old front derailleurs with weirdo integrated cable guides that reach all the way down. To my awareness these are all super low end, and I wasn't able to find a picture. I don't know much about Dawes but I doubt this what it came with, and it's likely not worth pursuing now.
It might have had a guide that clamped to the downtube, just above the bottom bracket like this, although if the chainstay cable-stop is on the bottom, perhaps not.
If you say that there aren't any cable stops for front derailleur, originally it might have had this type of the derailleur:
This is not a direct answer to your question, however if you try to restore your bike and bring her back to the original condition it might be the way to go.
