A byword for quality, the Rankin brand sold a mixture of home-grown produce and exotic items imported from the far flung corners of the globe.With branches in Princes Street, the West End, Tollcross, Leith, Corstorphine, and as far afield as Musselburgh, their shops were absolutely everywhere in the Capital in the 1950s and ‘60s, before a rise in car ownership and supermarkets saw profits suffer towards the end of the century.
The business was sold in 1985, but memories of the famous greengrocer chain remain strong in Edinburgh to this day.
9. Newington
Traffic and shops in Clerk Street Newington, Edinburgh, in January 1968. Rankin's had a fruit shop at St Patrick Square. Photo: Joe Steele
10. Nicolson Street, 1968
People shopping in Nicolson Street, Newington in Edinburgh October 1968 - some of the shops shown: Rankins Fruit Markets Ltd, Lewis's, MacVitties bakers. Photo: Alan Ledgerwood
11. Rankins delivery of candles
At Edinburgh Fruit Market, one of the Rankins fruit and vegetable family takes delivery of a batch of candles from Holland for use in the power cuts caused by the miners' strike of February 1972. Photo: Dick Ewart
12. Gorgie fruit market 1983
A Rankins forklift loads onions on to their lorry at Gorgie fruit market in Chesser Avenue Edinburgh, August 1983. Photo: Jack Crombie