Takeaway pioneers! Chip shop was at forefront of what became a £23.1bn industry

You only have to look at the proliferation of couriers on bikes in city centres to get a flavour of just how big the takeaway industry in the UK has become.

However, while the £23.1 billion sector now employs an astonishing 400,000 people, there was a time when just a handful of pot-carrying pioneers made history delivering hot food to people’s homes.

Among the dwindling group of Britain’s first ever takeaway deliverymen is Ronnie Gair, who – along with his elder brother – was employed by one of, if not ‘the’, first services in Scotland.

Mr Gair, 67, worked as a driver for Tarry’s Fish and Chip shop in the Corstorphine area of Edinburgh, delivering fish and chips and other hot dishes.

Such was the novelty of the offering when it started in 1963 that the BBC even sent a reporter and crew to interview shop owner Dominic Tartaglia.

In footage of Tarry’s burgeoning delivery service, shot in 1963, Mr Tartaglia and his son Victor are seen delivering fish and chips to a local woman, who orders two chicken suppers, three fish suppers and a carton of hot peas.

The video also shows the unique insulated metal containers that were used to keep the food hot while it was delivered by van.

Reminiscing about the service, Mr Gair said: ‘I worked on a Thursday and Sunday night. I got about £5 for working both nights and a fish supper to eat on the way home.

A woman orders food from Tarrys chip shop in Edinburgh in the 1960s. Credit BBC Archive

The decades old footage shows a worker preparing meals for delivery. Credit BBC Archive

A smartly dressed deliveryman loads the food into a van in what was then a cutting-edge service. Credit BBC Archive

‘Old Dom was a gent. He was the only one doing it back then. It was unique at the time.

‘I can’t help but imagine how he would see it now as a multi pound business with companies like Uber, Deliveroo, and Just Eat.’

Mr Gair was 18 when he started with the firm – joining his older brother who had been delivering for them since the service started.

He said the delivery service was extremely popular with affluent families in the Edinburgh area.

He also said that, unlike the criticisms often levelled at some takeaway services, people could rest assured their food would arrive within 15 minutes.

Mr Gair, from Edinburgh, said: ‘We did a lot of business in the posh houses in the Barton area of Edinburgh. There were a lot of well-off customers.

‘We went all over the city, we were very busy. We had two vans out on the road at the same time.

‘We started off delivering food in the metal pots before switching to insulated boxes in later years.’

The fish and chips would have cost one shilling and nine pence – the equivalent of £2.50 today

Mr Tartaglia explained the service to a BBC reporter in the footage. Credit BBC Archive

Speaking to a reporter in the BBC archive footage, Mr Tartaglia said that the introduction of the takeaway delivery was something brought about by the growing popularity of television.

He said: ‘Believe it or not it is all your fault. When you started TV in Scotland you gave our trade an awful hit.

‘So I decided to do something about it. If customers won’t come to me, then I’ll go to them.

‘Normally if someone phones us it means that they have been caught short.

‘We take the order and send it off and within 15-20 minutes it is on their table.’

The archive footage also reveals the price variance between prices in the 1960s and now, with fish and chips costing one shilling and nine pence – the equivalent of £2.50 today.

Mr Gair said the sheer popularity of takeaway deliveries these days shows how forward thinking his old boss Mr Tartaglia was.

He said: ‘Dom was a great guy. He was always thinking of ways of improving his business.

‘There are deliveries being done on push bikes these days. All I see on the roads are cyclists with bags. I’m gobsmacked by how far they go.

‘We used to deliver within a maximum of 15 minutes. It made sure people got it fresh and hot. We only took a couple of deliveries out at a time.’