A historic Hatton Garden jewellers is threatened with demolition so developers can open a heist-themed bar in the basement. Family firm E Katz & Co Ltd stands on the same block where an ageing gang stole £14million from safety deposit boxes in 2015. The shop was founded by Emil Katz in 1946, seven years after he fled Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia with a handful of diamonds sewn into his suit.
Emil's son George, 86, who joined his widowed mum Edith in the firm 70 years ago, said of the plans: "It's glorifying a crime scene, it's ghoulish. This is meant to be a jewellery quarter and it should be for jewellers, not developed into a theme bar."
Family's fight to save jewellers
George and his son-in-law Robert Willis, 48, who started at the business 10 years ago, now face a David and Goliath fight to save their jewellers. Architect drawings for the North London theme bar show a front awning with the name The Hatton Garden Heist. A door beside it is flanked by signs for Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd. The name belonged to the firm targeted by the gang of six who bored through a thick concrete wall into its basement vaults over the 2015 Easter weekend.
Landlords Pearl & Coutts have now applied for consent to change the use of their building from commercial to a Hatton Garden Heist-themed drinking establishment. This would be created by a developer. Under plans filed with Camden Council, E Katz Jewellers could be destroyed and replaced with a stairwell and lift to access the basement bar.
Objections to the plans
Robert, who is married to George's daughter Louise, said: "Violent crime is an everyday reality for us, it isn't something to have fun over with a glass of wine. There was an armed robbery in Hatton Garden three months ago 60 yards from our shop, this isn't something to make fun over. Most of the people deeply affected by the Hatton Garden heist are still alive and they lost everything in that robbery. It's extremely bad taste."
Louise added: "The whole family is absolutely heartbroken at the thought of my dad losing the family business he's worked tirelessly for over the last 70 years." People can comment on the plans until August 30 before a decision is made.
Historic character at stake
Ben Massey, chief of the National Association of Jewellers, said his organisation strongly objected. In a statement to the council, he added: "E Katz & Co has operated in Hatton Garden since 1946 and from its current premises since 1955. Businesses such as this are not only important commercial occupiers; they are part of the living history, identity and character that make Hatton Garden unique. Its national reputation has been built on generations of jewellers, makers, retailers and craftspeople. Its future success depends on retaining and supporting those businesses, not gradually displacing them."
He also referenced the jewellers' shop front, designed by Edith and noted by the council for its contribution to the historic character and distinctiveness of the area. She took on the shop - pioneering for a woman at the time - after Emil died in the 50s, leaving her with four children. George said: "My mother was widowed in her 40s and we didn't have any money. We had a house where we all lived but she had to come here because we had no money coming in. She didn't even know what a gold coin was. She was a housewife. But she was determined to make this shop work. I was taken out of school and came here not knowing anything about jewellery either. I think I've improved every year!"
Pearl & Coutts, owned by former Tottenham chairman David Pearl, was asked to comment. Camden Council said: "Hatton Garden has been an established centre for the jewellery industry since the nineteenth century, and we seek to secure new premises suitable for jewellery workshops and related uses and protect them through planning obligations. We also seek to protect existing businesses uses."
