Rankins’ in Tollcross in 1978. The year I was born! Can you remember any Rankins’ greengrocer shops in Edinburgh? © The Scotsman Publications Ltd.
The first step in my new project is to consider the history of the fruit and vegetable trade. I am particularly interested in my Great Grandfather’s chain of shops Rankins’ greengrocers in Edinburgh and would like to hear from anyone who can remember the shops.
The original fruit and vegetable market in Edinburgh was under the Bridges, after the Nor’ Loch was drained. © Edinburgh City Libraries.
Rummaging around in my local library, the first major fruit and vegetable market I can find evidence for in Scotland was below the bridges in Edinburgh. The land between Edinburgh’s Old and New Towns, originally occupied by Nor Loch, was drained in the late 18th Century and North Bridge built to span the gap. The area below the bridge became a thriving fruit and vegetable market. Produce would have come in fresh from the surrounding countryside. Potatoes and turnips in winter and strawberries and raspberries in summer, as well as produce from further afield such as oranges from Spain, though this would have been seasonal as well – and expensive!
As the market grew young entrepreneurs, like my Great Grandfather William Locke Rankin (born 1897), began to take advantage of the growing trade in fruit and vegetables by setting up Rankins’ Fruit Markets.
The first reference to the family business I can find is an advert in The Scotsman in 1924 for a ‘smart girl’ to work in the shop. I know Willie Rankin was doing well by then because in 1923 he married a beautiful young woman, my great grandmother, Maryann McArdle.
My Great Grandmother Maryann Rankin (nee McArdle) on her wedding day in June 1923 with the extended Cadona clan, a well known family of show people.
By 1935 the business had Royal approval, ‘Purveyors of fruit and vegetables by appointment to His Majesty the King’. Indeed in 1938 Rankins’ received orders for the Palace of Holyrood from Queen Mary.
As the 19th Century progressed, the railway started to edge out the traders under the Bridges and in 1938 the market was moved to what is now Market Street. Waverley Station became the busy train station we know today.
Rankins unloading fruit and veg on the last day of the old fruit market on Market Street in 1972. © The Scotsman Publications Ltd.
Of course the Scottish produce remained but also more exotic fruit like bananas from the Caribbean. My Grandmother remembers the warm banana rooms in Waverley Station where the Fyffes fruit was ripened.
Rankins’ was a thriving chain of greengrocers in Nicolson Street, Tollcross and the West End. I would love to hear from any readers who can remember any other shops or what is was like inside. What kind of fruit and vegetables were on sale?
Traffic and shops in Clerk Street Newington, Edinburgh, in January 1968 – also in picture, Rankins Fruit Markets, Odeon cinema. © The Scotsman Publications Ltd.
In 1972 the market was moved again to Gorgie Fruit Market as the supermarkets began to move into the centre of town and edge out the old greengrocers.
Vegetables being loaded at Gorgie Fruit Market in 1983 by a Rankins employee © The Scotsman Publications Ltd.
Eventually this market was closed down as well and Rankins’ went the way of most greengrocers, unable to compete with the supermarkets, who source fruit and vegetables direct to their own warehouses.
Today there is only one major fruit and vegetable wholesale market in Scotland, Blochairn in Glasgow. I visited the market with Scottish Field and you can see pictures and follow the debate about fruit and veg in my ongoing column in the magazine. The market today supplies mostly restaurants and a few independent greengrocers.
The age of the greengrocer is over. But are the fruits and vegetables available in the supermarkets now as good?
NB Since writing this post a couple of weeks ago, I have discovered a lot of people remember Rankins’ and there is even a Facebook page: Rankins of Edinburgh.
A Rankins brown paper bag
There are a few more photos on the page and much discussion of what it was like inside a Rankins’, including descriptions of the buckets of flowers at the entrance, the soft fruit behind the counter, the muddy bins of tatties and the terrazzo floor.
Rankins’ on Princes Street
Inside Rankins’ on Princes Street
I remember two greengrocers, one on the corner at the west end of edinburgh, it was big and had wonderful terrazzo floors and another but not a rankins which in the very early 50’s just after the war, would have tiny baskets of exotic fruit with legends such as “just flown in from Jamaca” or “newly arrived from Palestine” My mother would occasionally buy one date or one coconut for us to share and taste…. she was a superb and adventurous cook, we owed her so much…. including my masterchef qualifications
Hi Angela! I love that image. It just shows how we appreciated exotic fruit because it was so rare back then? Could that might be the Rankins Fruit and Flowers that features in the Edinburgh Evening News picture on the Rankins FB page? https://www.facebook.com/RankinsofEdinburgh/
Hi Louise,
I had my first job in Rankins Tollcross when I was at James Gillespies High School – I think I was 13 when I started so early/mid 1980s. My Mum worked there before me and got me the Saturday job. I was seconded one Saturday to the West End and found that manically busy compared to the Tollcross branch. Very happy to help with any questions you might have. Could put you in touch with my Mum too.
I worked in Rankins on Portobello High st, I remember Peter Rankin I’m sure he interviewed me for the job, I also remember having the day off to attend his mothers funeral. I worked there from 1981 until 1983
As a child in the 1950’s, I remember shopping with my Mum in Rankin’s in Easter Road. It was where we got all of our fruit and veg.
There was also a large Rankins in Bruntsfield place but the store wasn’t branded as such. Nevertheless it was a Rankins and I worked there when I was at school from around 1976 to 1979. Shortly after that it became an Odbins store and the grumpy couple who had run the large Rankins set-up a new greengrocers practically next door.
My father had a Fruiterer, confectioner and Greengrocer’s shop at 22 Brougham Place in the 1940’s and 1950’s. i still have a photograph of him standing in the shop doorway. When he died in 1956 my mother sold the shop around 1957 and Rankins put in a bid but it was eventually sold to Saltmans Fruit Markets
I lived at Joppa till I left home & the Rankins had a house & market garden fronting onto Milton Road, opposite South Morton Street & the market garden went way back, further than the Glen & past the Brunstane Burn bridge, They had a couple of huge pigs back there, too. When I was in my mid to late teens, the only signs of cultivation left at the back of their ground was rhubarb but there was plenty of it lol!My friend & I used to walk my dog up there, all the way to Newcraighall & on the way back, we’d gather as much rhubarb as we could carry give it to the older ladies in Queens Bay Crescent where I lived, keeping some for my mum & my friend’s. Mum was always afraid we’d be brought home by the police for stealing it but I can’t say there was ever any sign of anyone other than ourselves being up there regularly, far less working the area.
There was a Rankins in Portobello on the north east corner of the High Street & Bath Street & I remember it as being one of the bigger ones. My mother in law was manager of the one in Baxters Place at the junction of Leith Street & London Road. I think it was probably one of the smallest branches. These two & the one at the West End are the ones I knew best as we used to live by the Dean Bridge before we moved to Joppa. I often wondered, even as a child, just how many branches they were because it seemed every area of Edinburgh had one.
The branches always looked smart, despite the floor having dust & dried mud off the potatoes & other root vegetables all over it. Those young girls must have spent half their days sweeping it up. We’d go past on our way to the butcher & it was lovely & clean but coming back 10 minutes later, it would be all dusty again!The fascia boards above the windows were darker green & inside the fronts of the counters & various other areas were lighter & shiny but looking back, I’m not at all sure what it was made of. It looked like glass but was more probably something like Formica. Whatever it was, it wasn’t just a flat green as there was a darker colour in it, too; just little touches of it that I always thought as a child, made it look a bit like tweed. The staff wore green overalls similar to the fronts of the counters & the entire shop looked very smart.
The Portobello one is the one I remember best but anything I say about it is probably true of all the others, too as I never felt they looked any different except in location & layout. There were big square bins, usually towards the back of the shop or in corners & they contained all the potatoes, turnips & the more robust vegetables as they were tipped in from double walled heavy duty paper sacks. There was a lid on top to lift to empty them in & at the front, a door that slid up for the assistants to shovel out whatever the customers wanted & usually into their bags or baskets. We always took Mum’s “Rankins Basket” if we were going for any of the heavier vegetables & they’d lift however many onions she wanted, out of the orange mesh bags they came in that stood along the wall & put them in on top of the potatoes. Mushrooms were gently picked out of baskets & put into a brown paper bag to help to keep them fresh & unbruised & Mum always put then in on top of everything else in her bag to keep them that way! There were bug circular tubs of different fruits in front ot the counters & behind the counters, usually in punnets, the soft summer fruits. I guess because customers just can’t resist squeezing fruit! I liked to go & look at & sniff the big metal cans of flowers (also dark green but I don’t think they were specific to Rankins) while I waited for Mum to be served. I think, reading what I’ve written here, going to Rankins must have formed happy memories of my childhood.
Incidentally, my dog was the result an encounter between a neighbour’s Yellow Lab bitch & Rankin’s Alsatian guard dog! One of the neighbour’s kids left the door open, the Rankins boy was waiting outside for her & they eloped to Joppa Road where they stopped all the traffic one lunch time! I was 10 at the time & when people complained about how dangerous it was, I said at least they were on the zebra crossing lol!
Hope some of this may be of use or at least interest to you & I wish you every success with your work. Do feel free to contact me any time if you want clarification on any points. Clarity is not one of my strong points as I have dyslexia & am old lol!
Our Rankins was in Duke Street, Leith, and I loved it as a child, the scent of the flowers standing in containers of water on the floor, the fruit in the windows and vegetables in boxes. We got all vegetables there, and occasionally flowers, although we had a garden, both back and front this was a rare event. However there was also a fruit and vegetable cart, belonging to Mr Hammersley, I think, which delivered regularly to James Place and round about, so our heavier veg like potatoes, turnips, etc, came from the cart. Happy memories, I think we were lucky having lots of fruit and vegetables, in the 50s. Loved the wedding photo, I am fascinated by the dresses and the numbers of guests, and how they kept the children quiet while the photographer took the formal portraits.
Hi Louise, If I recall correctly, there was a branch of Rankins just across the street from the TSB, at the corner of Fountainbridge and Lothian Rd. The building was demolished.
I remember a double fronted Rankins in Stockbridge, quite close to the fish shop and down from the TSB in Deanhaugh Street. It was the most expensive green grocers and there was stiff competition from Saltmans, who were next to the TSB.
Then, further down the road into Raeburn Place, were Anderson’s and Marshall’s.
Anderson’s were the best quality and were much cheaper.
Hi Louise,
I worked for Veitch Moir, directly opposite Rankins warehouse in Market Street. My job also involved importing produce into Leith docks where we all operated from a row of wooden offices.This was known as Banana Row or Tomato Alley. Rankins Office was next door and we knew each other well. We also travelled together to Glasgow twice a week where we sold our imports to Glasgow wholesalers. Davy Rankin had a penchant for flashy American cars and also owned a garage at Meadowbank. I also had a greengrocers shop in Joppa, but found the retail side of the business very boring after being involved in the huge imports into Leith.
I left Edinburgh in 1972 to work in Bristol for a Dutch company before finishing my career when I reached 60, which was 21 long years ago. However, my memories of life in Market Street and Leith docks are very clear and I’m sure I can fill in any blanks for you.
Hi Louise,
I worked at the west end store after school from 75-77. It was a great place to work with some absolutely marvellous people who I still remember and think fondly of 40 years later.The store was in 3 section and tobacconists, fruit market and flower shop, all connected via a huge basement. There were 3 counters in the fruit shop one long one and 2 smaller ones where the customers placed their orders and the staff would serve them. Then they took their purchases to a little cash kiosk where one of the 2 Mary’s would take their till tape and cash. Mrs Gillan was always at the store (She passed away in 76 or 77) Everyone from the store went to the funeral and Peter Rankin would drop in often (Though I don’t remember hum ever talking to any of us. June Hanlon was the manageress and to this day one of the best bosses I have ever had.