Remembering Rediffusion Edinburgh

Rediffusion (Scotland) began trading in Edinburgh in 1964, opening their first shop in Dalry Road on November 28, and the second shop in Earl Grey Street (now demolished) on Christmas Eve. There has been a period of steady growth and expansion, with eight shops trading, including two new units opened by 1977.
By this time the branch had almost 3,000 colour hirers and 1,000.mono hirers, and has a substantial turnover from retail trading.
The branch manager was Alan Egar, who was previously in charge of the Home Street shop. He was ably backed by Alex Lambie the service supervisor and an enthusiastic team of shop, technical and office staff.

Edinburgh branch premises relocated from the old location at 13/15 Harrison Gardens to modern and up-to-date accommodation in the Longstone Centre on the south west outskirts of the city. Harrison Gardens has been the hub of the Edinburgh branch since the very early days in 1964, but had become increasingly cramped over the years and inadequate for expansion. After extensive searching for suitable alternative accommodation, the Longstone Centre came to light. This had been a small suburban shopping complex which did not succeed, and the accommodation had been turned over to light industrial use. The region were fortunate enough to successfully negotiate for the lease of a former supermarket which, after extensive alterations, made an ideal branch location, even to the point of having window display and selling facilities. The thinking behind the planning of the layout of the premises was to have as much â€œopen planâ€ area as possible, resulting in the branch office and service control area being an integral part of the area with the light and modern TV workshop area separated only by glass partitioning. These new premises had the further advantages of good access to most parts of the city and extensive service area, good storage capacity and excellent staff facilities.