Date with history: C&A hosted city's first CCTV system

THE arrival of a CCTV system to Princes Street's C&A store was a first of its kind back on 24 June, 1969.

The department store was the first in Edinburgh to have such high-tech surveillance equipment installed, with bosses hoping it would cut shoplifting by 50 per cent.

CCTV experience gained by C&A in Coventry three years prior had persuaded the firm it was the answer to the growing problem of theft in Edinburgh.

Experts delivered 140 cameras to the branch, installing them on all seven floors, mounted in units from the ceilings.

Security staff were instructed to keep a "constant watch" on the various monitor screens with just a "turn of a switch" giving them a close-up view of "anyone acting suspiciously".

But the system also had an extra bonus – allowing C&A management to use it to measure how busy different parts of the store were at any one time.