threadinburgh.scot
## Darts and Television. The thread about Borlands of Croall Place
A small but nevertheless significant ripple spread across social media just the other day when it was picked up that the premises of **Borlands** , a legendary shop on Leith Walk, was for sale. This establishment is well known both for its longevity (“Estd. 1925” above the door) and its no-nonsense signage that boldly proclaimed its unusual pairing of product lines. **Darts**. **Television**.
> Darts and television go together like fish and chips.
>
> Irvine Welsh and Kevin Williamson, writing on the subject of Borlands, 1993
Very little in print media seems ever to have been written about the place, although for a business with no web presence it ironically maintained a somewhat cult following online. There’s more to the Borlands story than just darts and television, so let Threadinburgh take the opportunity to mark the passing of a long-standing pillar of the Leith Walk business community by expanding on it a little bit for you.
Our story begins with Mary Borland (1879-1936), who ran a small newsagent and sweet shop at 47 Albert Street, further down Leith Walk. A widow, the 1921 Census shows she lived in the tenement next door (number 49) with her 17 year-old son Alexander Stanley (apprentice cooper), 14 year-old daughter Beatrice and her 46-year old brother Alexander McPherson, a shipbuilder at Cran & Somerville’s yard in Leith. She had been in business since at least 1920 as evidenced by the Valuation Rolls of that year. In 1925, Alexander took over the next door shop to his mother at number 45 and started out in business for himself as a “ _cycle agent_ ” i.e., selling bicycles on hire purchase. This shop came with a flat behind, which became his home.
43-49 Albert Street, Google Streetview 2025. From right to left, the red door of the tenement at number 43, the yellow-painted shop unit is combined from two previous smaller shops of 45 (Alexander, bicycles and gramphones) and 47 (Mary’s newsagent and confectioner), and the green door of the tenement at number 49.
His business soon expanded into another new hire-purchase market: wireless radios. The BBC had launched a repeater service (2EH) serving Edinburgh in 1924 but home radio sets remained a luxury for the privileged (or technically capable) few for some time. By the turn of the ‘Thirties however mass production and new manufacturers entering a cut-throat market caused the unit price of sets to drop significantly. This brought them within the financial reach of the masses thanks to consumer credit.
> A. B. calling. Stop wondering, your wireless set is here, on easy hire purchase terms; Osram 4, Cossor 3, and Red Start 3, etc. don’t delay, call in or write to-day, distance no object; all sets installed free.
>
> Advert for A. Borland, 45 Albert Street, Edinburgh News, 25th October 1930
In 1932 you could have a set from Borlands for no deposit and just 3s 6d a week. As the price of sets continued to fall, this payment was down to 3s/week in 1933 and only 2s the following year. You didn’t even need mains electricity, many models worked off a battery which could be taken back to the shop to be recharged.
A vintage Osram 4 “Music Magnet” radio, of the sort sold by Borlands in the 1930s. Image from eBay auction listing.
The expansion of Alex’s business was matched by that of his family. He married Agnes Wight in 1930 and two sons would follow; Alexander Stanley (junior) in 1933 and William Wight in 1936. Mary Borland died that year, aged 61, having kept her paper and sweetie shop going next door. Business growth continued and in 1935 the shop familiar to generations at 7 Croall Place on Leith Walk, then trading as _McDonald Radio_ , was purchased. This meant that although it was one of the longest-established businesses on Leith Walk, it wasn’t quite the oldest. _Miller ’s Linoleum Warehouse _has been at number 177 for five more years, the predecessors of _Scotmid Co-op_ have been at 368-370 Leith Walk since way back in 1906 and the _Central Bar_ has been going since 1903.
At Croall Place, Borlands expanded into selling domestic furniture – something else you could get on hire purchase – from this shop. He also owned a number of workshops and garages off the lane behind Albert Place with newspaper adverts recording the occasional motorcyle, car or van for sale. This growing empire is evidence of a successful, self-made businessman. When Leith moved to automatic exchange dialling in July 1936, he was one of a number of prominent local traders who took out adverts in the _Evening News_ to inform the public of this technological update:
Alex. Borland, Leith 36280. Evening News, 25th July 1936
The Borlands sons would join the business in the 1950s and the photograph below shows William Wight Borland in the door of 7 Croall Place, probably in the late ‘1950s ‘Fifties or early ‘Sixties. They remained a bicycle dealer in the former decade, adverts in 1951 noting they had over 100 in stock and dealt in the _Coventry Eagle, Triumph_ and _New Hudson_ brands on hire purchase. Although the sign above the door reads “ _Radio. Cycles_ “, not “ _Darts. Television_ “, the observant listener will notice from the window display that the latter new market had already been entered. Adverts in the _ ‘News _suggest this was around 1954 (the Coronation in 1953 having kick-started the British addiction to television) and in 1961 they told the public that one could rent “ _a slim television from 9s 6d weekly_ ” from Borlands. Alexander senior would die a few years later in 1966 at the age of 62, his sons taking over the reins.
Borlands for Darts and Televison in 2023 (Google Streeview Image) overlaid with the shop front in the 1950s (image uploaded to Ancestry.com) for Borlands for Radios and Cycles. William Wight Borland, son of Alexander senior, stands in the doorway. Move the slider to compare
The Borland USP of mixing hire-purchase home entertainment with goods for a single sport perhaps began around 1954 when bikes appear to have been supplanted by golf clubs and paraphernalia. Although newspaper adverts seem to dry when the sons took over the business, they return in the early 1980s by which time golf was on the way out and in came snooker and – most importantly – darts. It may seem to younger readers, or those outwith the UK, that this was an unusual combination however both sports were enjoying massive popularity at the time thanks, appropriately, to colour television.
William Wight Borland died at in 1991 aged just 55, by which time he was running 45 Albert Street as a property development and letting agency. His brother Alexander continued to run 7 Croall Place but died just two years later in 1993 aged 60, by which time the definitive signage and product lines of just **Darts** and **Television** had been settled on. His wife of thirty years, Maureen, took over the reins at this time. An unexpected degree of fame was brought to the shop that year when Irvine Welsh and Kevin Williamson featured it in their alternative _Visitor ’s Guide to Edinburgh. _Welsh returned to the shop in 1996 with Damon Albarn in tow during a chaotic and well-oiled pub crawl of the city, the Blur frontman buying a bowling bag at Croall Place. The pair had journalist Craig McLean in tow with the idea the day might provide a launch article for a new pop culture magazine, instead they got drunken chaos. The inebriated Albarn had to be taken back to the Malmaison hotel by McLean (who relates he had to undress him and put him to bed) while Welsh disappeared off to Glasgow to watch Hibs only to end up being arrested. An unimpressed Maureen Borland would later tell the Evening News “ _[he] came in here once with that guy from Blur, Damon Albarn. They came in with cans of lager and I think they ’d been to a pub after the football… I’m not a lover of what he writes. This shop’s a family business_.”
Damon Albarn (l) and Irvine Welsh (r) accepting a Brit Award at Earl’s Court in 1997. Credit: Fiona Harrison, PA Images
Maureen continued to run the shop as it long had been until 2021, when she died aged 78, when it was carried on by her second husband – Ray Withey. It was a remarkable survivor, having weathered the storms of both Covid and the debacle that was the Edinburgh Trams project on Leith Walk (the latter bringing more than a handful of long-standing business to their knees). The business had found its unusual product niche and stuck rigidly to it (with the more recent exception of offering key cutting). Trade was conducted on paper and with cash. It never entered the digital age, there was no web address and certainly no social media: just a postal address and telephone number. If you ever found reason to cross its unassuming threshold you would be confronted with a very traditional layout, the proprietor behind a counter surrounded by a vast array of stock neatly presented in display cases and hanging on the walls. Whether it was flights for your darts or co-axial cable by the metre, price tags were neatly written by hand. Polite but firm notices kept you in your place: don’t touch and no more than 10 minutes on the practice board.
The interior of the Darts department of Borlands, stills from a Tik-Tok video posted in January 2025 by KCGaming.
Ray Withey passed away in 2025 at the age of 69, and with him the shutters at 7 Croall Place were pulled down for the final time, ending a 100 year family story.
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