Globally Popular

'Juice' or the lack of it is a useful simile summing up the journey across the decade of the 1960s from age 4 to 14 years of age and the gradual change in prosperity and access to greater discretionary spend.

In the early 1960s there was a paucity of fizzy drinks in our home in Oxgangs.

On a summer's afternoon when we used to burst in through the door of 6/2 Oxgangs Avenue to quench our thirsts the choice of drink was between milk or water neither of which was overly appealing. The former because we didn't have a fridge until we got a second-hand one in 1973 when our great-grandfather died and in the school holiday months of July and August the milk was warm and unappealing but similarly neither was water because, eh, it tasted like water!

If only we had that tin of Creamola Foam from our great-grandparents' home at London Road Dalkeith. Or the tempting bottle of Globe's Green Limes that belonged to our father. But as 'the ogre' had marked the label and told us not to touch his bottle then we usually settled for a mug of water.

A few years later in the mid-1960s I came across 'Treetop Orange' diluting juice in the Blades' household upstairs and occasionally when we were doing the shopping for Mother at The Store (St Cuthbert's Coop) at Oxgangs Road North we might sneak a bottle into our shopping basket; come the long hours spent on the local Colinton Mains Park tennis courts it was a nice treat.

St Cuthbert's Store SPL

But the real treat was fizzy juice.

I began to have a little disposable income from around the age of ten onward in 1966 either from pocket monies from our grandfather or the little paper or milk jobs we began to steadily pick up. Up until then we would only sporadically have monies for discretionary spend.

Alongside this it became apparent to me that I didn't have to spend my lunch monies at Hunters Tryst Primary School on school lunch tickets and instead I could use the 1/6d (one shilling and sixpence) at Ewart's Newsagent's and Martin's the Baker's - not for a bottle of Globe which would have been too expensive but instead on a bottle of Koolapop (9d) (now vanished to the great juice graveyard in the sky) and three Paris buns (3d each) - heaven! Eating healthily hadn't entered our vocabularies at that time. And when we returned the bottle we spent the 3d on a quarter of Sports Mixtures.

Like many young Edinburghers I presumed Globe Table Waters was sold everywhere across the planet. Today I wonder just how far their market extended into other geographical areas; certainly in the capital their products were very popular.

In the 1960s the market wasn't dominated by such multinationals as Coca-Cola; and Globe would probably have been primarily concerned with such local competitors as Dunbar's or Hendry's (who seem to have sold their products primarily within the Co-op.)

Andy Robson says that growing up in the Borders, as most shops stocked both, they had a rival to Globe - Middlemiss of Kelso - and that many a long debate was had in the playground about which was better.

When businesses close down much of the history of the organisation is lost which is unfortunate because they're such an important part of our social history and often have been an integral part of our journey through life.

Globe's history is lost down the great glughole 36 years after they were taken over by Barr's in 1983 - such a great pity it wasn't t'other way! And as the years pass and people who lived in the local Leith area; or worked there or were like most of us just consumers their story is vanishing into the mists of time.

There's a dearth of material on the company.

Outwith a few bottle labels there is very little on the Internet.

I haven't come across any photographs of Globe's premises; their lorries; or advertising material on the company's range of drinks (large!); or their prices etc. Presumably some of the family may have a few photographs of the company. It would be interesting to find out more starting with how they got their name? Globe - was it a modest quest for world domination!

I presume it was Mr George J. McPhie who founded the company but it could have been his father before him or did he buy an existing business off someone else?

But for whoever came up with the idea to commence trading as Globe Table Waters Ltd. - that light-bulb moment, little did they realise how it would impact upon the lives of thousands of the capital's citizens, young and old, and how their aerated table waters would be recalled with great affection.

Whilst Mr McPhie's customers were glugging back Sun Kool Cola or Pippin or Pineapple on hot summer afternoons after playing football or out jumping the burn or come Edinburgh dark winter evenings enjoying a Red Kola to accompany a pie supper or hamburger (always two in Edinburgh) none of us thought about the various stages of the process involved in putting bottle to mouth (was it only in the more genteel households that it was dispelled in glasses?!) not to mention completing the transaction when returning the bottle to Ewart's to claim 3d (substitute what you wish for inflation and age!) back which of course was then immediately spent on Kola-Kubes or such like.

Photograph Alan Hume

But if Mr McPhie did establish Globe Table Waters just think of the chain and complex processes involved in getting that bottle into your hands never mind establishing and growing the business.

In a cursory consideration placing oneself into Mr McPhie's shoes he would have needed to undertake research into what was involved in producing fizzy drinks. Did he employ or poach away a specialist with a drinks or chemistry background? And just how long did it take in these non-earning months using trial and error to get each recipe just right in terms of the soft drink's balance; and because of this did he deploy a steady as we go approach introducing different flavours over a period of years as the company began to grow?

Globe's range was impressively extensive but I'm only adjudging that from around 1970 when they produced not only their famous Sun Kool Cola and popular Red Kola but everything from the exotic and fantastic Green Limes to a lighter such juice, Limeade; and as Nelson White recalls two types of orange too, Still Orange and Whole Orange; then there was the mythical popular Pippin; and also American Cream Soda and of course a plain lemonade. I think there was a Bitter Lemon; a Grapefruit; and a Ginger Beer too, but I couldn't be sure, but there may have been others too in their range.

There seems to be a general unity of opinion their table waters were of a good quality compared to other companies although that said they were most likely full of ingredients that weren't particularly good for us including sugar, perhaps the most dangerous substance on our globe!

Before bottles of table waters ever came off the line, in the very early days, Mr McPhie would have needed to consider the logistics in either buying or renting appropriate premises with an important criterion being to have access to a ready dependable supply of pure water.

Specialist machinery was required and you wonder where such equipment came from not to mention the bottles used; establishing assembly lines and processes employing a range of workers mostly without direct experience; as well as seeking out and forming good relationships with his suppliers - an onerous business and all this from scratch.

In the days when marketing is so important did Mr McPhie design the labels too, some of which were quirky? I suspect it was another part of his to-do list; whilst the bottles and labels (with metal screw-caps replacing the previous rubber-stop tops) were basic and practical but didn't really incorporate exciting novel designs that would have tempted customers to buy their products off the shelf: instead it was an approach that once customers had tasted and enjoyed their wares they probably came back back time after time becoming customers for life.

In the very early days of the business George J. McPhie would have had the enormous challenge of breaking into an established market and making such inroads which would have been slow with implications for cash flow and servicing borrowed capital.

Creating such a business from scratch would have required a very heavy capital investment and there was no guarantee of any success; it must have been quite nerve-wracking for George and his immediate family and a worrying time in the early years of Globe Table Waters Ltd. in trying to establish a niche in the market and then to grow the company. It's something which would put most people off such a venture never mind taking such a risk involved in such an investment probably having to borrow finance from the bank with your home as collateral, so forgive the pun but full credit to George McPhie!

Robert Griffin says that it seems a shame that much of their history hasn’t been recorded with practically nothing coming up on Google regarding the company apart from when Barr's bought Globe out it in 1983.

He says that when he worked for them it was certainly one of the most popular soft drinks companies at the time. And even during the three day week it didn't affect Globe because they were classed as food. Robert says they also had a warehouse down in Lauder where he went on one occasion to make a delivery. Robert recalls being away for half the day and how tough it was loading and unloading a full lorry which explains the amusing comment from Alastair Masterton of how 'When the broo sent me for a job tae Globe's the foreman telt me tae come back when I had some muscles!'

Margaret Wooton says 'My dad worked for Globe when I was born; it always makes me laugh that his job recorded on my birth certificate is aerated water salesman!'

Nelson Wilson recalls that working at Globe Table Waters in the 1960s was to work at the best juice factory in Edinburgh and how Mr McPhie (Hugh?) was training for the ministry and took over the business when his father (George?) died and of how he did not believe in advertising believing the product should speak for itself. This perhaps ties in with the relative ordinariness of the labelling. But Nelson says they produced quality drinks and how much he loved their Iron Brew.

Echoing Robert's memory of how much hard work was involved in delivering the crates I recall when walking up to Oxgangs Broadway occasionally seeing the Globe lorry at the back of Ewart's Newsagent's delivering cases of Globe table waters in their wooden boxes which probably held a hefty dozen bottles.

Another aspect of the business process was the ordering and billing: did Ian Ewart just telephone Leith (554) 1247 or did he just select items from the lorry? I suspect the order was placed ahead. Despite Ewart's extending to a double shop in the late 1960s they would only have been able to store only so much, so Globe probably delivered several times each week to replenish their stock.

Ian Ewart

I think Ian probably restricted the range of flavours to what was generally popular. Certainly my father enjoyed the likes of Globe Limes or a Bitter Lemon but he would need to get that at the like of McGillivray's Fish and Chip shop in Morningside which seemed to specialise in selling some of the more fanciful flavours.

Globe Table Waters operated out of 47 Bowling Green Street West Leith under the ownership and management of George J. McPhie and then from around 1970 under the leadership of his son Hugh J. McPhie.

Nelson Wilson has a good knowledge of the company and writes that the owner (Hugh or George J. McPhie?) was training for the ministry and took over the business when his father died. That would suggest the business had been fairly long established as George is denoted as being the owner of the business in 1961 with his son named around 1970.  Nelson loved their Iron Brew - note the spelling as Barr's perhaps had the right to spell it (Irn) in their own idiosyncratic way.

He goes on to say that the bottles had a picture of a kola nut on the label reflecting the African origin of the kola nut which contained caffeine and was used for other products as well as drinks. Nelson enjoyed working for Globe's and says the company moved sometime in the 1970s out to Pentland Industrial Estate at Loanhead. He says the foreman was a Mr Thom who was a nice very polite man and that a chap called John managed the line.

Robert Griffin worked at Globe Table Waters too for about nine months from the summer of 1973. He remembers working with Molly, John and Stewart and how you could drink as much juice as you wanted to, including small bottles of pineapple, lemonade etc. and how you could buy bottles at half price.

And as for lunchtimes he would mostly pop round the corner to the pub on Newhaven Road and have the customary three pints, however he didn't spend every lunchtime in the boozer as he often walked up to Pilrig as there was always a game of football going on. He says he must have drunk Globe's juice all day long and amusingly that on reflection he must have spent half the day going back and forward to the loo!

Recalling how in that era Health and Safety was much laxer than it is today including working with machinery and having to stack the big cases eight high and full of juice he's surprised he didn't do himself an injury and said it wasn't unusual to get news that one of the lorries had lost some full crates in transit with all that nice juice getting washed down the drains! He says that stacking the crates in the factory was definitely dangerous and how he could normally manage to stack to seven high involving a little run up and jumping up on to a crate before releasing the crate and of how sometimes it worked but sometimes it didn't! Robert left Globe's in March 1974.

Hugh J. McPhie is listed as the proprietor from at least 1970 so perhaps there was a period of shadowing with his father George J. McPhie. Robert recalls around 15 years later (1989) while living and working in Guernsey he bumped into Hugh recognising him straightaway.

Today with the advent and success of many smaller new breweries and gin distillers it seems a shame that Globe no longer exists; rather than global domination I'd happily settle for them to be still selling their table waters in Leith and Edinburgh.