Boyds Hardware Shop

I was born in Edinburgh but I grew up in Inverkeithing. For those who don't know, that's a town across the river just north of Edinburgh, about 15 miles by road, considerably less by helicopter. I moved to Edinburgh when I went to University and except for four years down south, I've lived here ever since.

Today, I decided to go back to Inverkeithing. I hadn't been back there for years. Very, very many years. No reason to go back. There's nothing there. There never was much there and there's even less there now, as the papermill and the shipbreakers have closed down. But I decided to go across to see what had changed and what hadn't.

Much has changed, as one would expect, but a surprising number of things haven't. I took lots of photographs, just to document how the place is today. Most if not all of them are pretty uninteresting except as a document. I think my favourite is the one above.

Boyds has been there since forever. I was surprised that it's still there. I didn't go in, but I expect it still sells the same old mixture of tools and screws and bits and bobs as it used to. When I was a kid, the overwhelming sensation upon entering Boyds was the smell of paraffin. I expect that they don't sell paraffin any more.

Maybe I'll go back to Inverkeithing again in a few years to see if anything has changed. I hope Boyds will still be there.