London

Harvey Zeto

If all these shops kept their stock underground, the streets of Hatton Garden were not paved with gold; they were laid on top of it. The flow of time, however, brings change. You get a sense, talking to the guys for whom the trade has always been a family business, that Hatton Garden has altered and is continuing to alter. There’s an obvious attachment to the old ways. The premises out of which David Jules operated are now occupied by Futuro, a jeweller’s with a more contemporary look (‘Very trendy stuff, you know what I mean’). This phenomenon is repeated up and down the street; some of the newly arrived businesses are in the trade, others are not. The site of the police court in Dickens’ ‘Oliver Twist’ at Nos 52-53 is now home to a firm that organises training and conference events. Feature continues

In the late 1990s, the street underwent more drastic change, literally overnight, when it was used as a location in Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Eyes Wide Shut’, shot between October 1996 and January 1998. For a scene in which Tom Cruise is pursued by a sinister man after leaving a hooker’s apartment, Hatton Garden was dressed as a New York street. US-style payphones were installed between Nos 32 and 38 and shop signs and awnings altered to appear more American.

Some of the more permanent changes that have taken place in Hatton Garden have been welcomed by the old guard. Zeto speaks highly of a new venture, the Heart of Hatton Garden Jewellery Emporium at No 32, where two floors of a large retail space have been divided up into small individual units leased separately to individual traders. Affable owners Jonny Deal and Charlie Gabay share an office on the first floor.

The pair opened the emporium in May of this year, having been inspired by the jewellery exchanges of 47th Street in New York. Deal explains that a sole trader in a typical retail outlet in the street might pay £100,000 per annum on rent, rates and service charge. If they take a unit in the emporium, they’ll pay between £5,000 and £10,000.

Phase one is the ground-floor area, phase two the basement, which also includes a café. ‘The food in the café is kosher,’ says Gabay, ‘of course.’Historically the diamond trade has been dominated by one section of the community. ‘Predominantly, it’s a Jewish thing,’ says Harvey Zeto. But others are here: ‘You’ve got the Israeli influence, you’ve got the Indian influence.’ The Indian dealers do not concern Zeto; the competition offered by goods coming out of India does.‘

There have been times when I’ve been offered a ring for £500,’ he says. ‘If you started from scratch and gave me £500, sometimes you can’t make them up in this country what with the labour. They’ve found a way of casting rings out there with stones in them. They’re doing away with the cost of the guy who has to set the stones. We’re not managing to keep up.’

Thailand, too, is a worry. ‘If a man here charges you X amount to set a stone, over in Thailand they’ve got them working like ants 24 hours a day, and instead of £5 a stone it’s more like 20 pence.’

Have things reached crisis point?‘Not crisis point, but there’s a wake-up call.’