‘Ghoulish’: Jewellers slam plans for robbery-themed bar at site of Hatton Garden heistA Hatton Garden jeweller has condemned ‘ghoulish’ plans to turn the scene of the notorious £14m heist into a robbery-themed barPeople walk past a Hatton Garden safe deposit centre on April 7, 2015 in London, EnglandGettyMegan Howe, News Reporter1 minute ago
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Plans to turn the site of the infamous 2015 Hatton Garden heist into a robbery-themed bar have been slammed as “ghoulish” by a jeweller whose says his family business could be forced to close.
Proposals submitted to Camden Council in July by landlord Pearl & Coutts would transform the basement at 88-90 Hatton Garden, including the vault targeted in the notorious multimillion-pound raid.
Visitors would descend into a glitzy underground bar themed around the heist, with original features from the crime scene incorporated in the space, including the broken security gate and the hole drilled through the vault wall by the gang.
According to the planning statement, members of the public would also be offered daytime tours of the vault and the scene of the robbery.
Inception Group, the hospitality operator behind venues including Cahoots in Soho and Control Room B at Battersea Power Station, would run the bar.
But George Katz, who runs the jewellery business above the vault, has condemned the plans as “ghoulish and completely inappropriate”, pointing to the devastating impact the 2015 raid had on victims.
If the proposals go ahead, E Katz and Co Limited could be forced to close after 80 years as a family business in Hatton Garden.
A police woman enters the Hatton Garden safe deposit centre following the heist in 2015Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
The company was founded in 1946 by Mr Katz’s father, Emil, seven years after he fled Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia with a handful of diamonds sewn into his suit.
“A lot of people lost their livelihoods in the 2015 robbery,” Mr Katz told the Islington Tribune.
“Most people didn’t have insurance as safe deposits are supposed to be rock solid, they are nearly impossible to get into. People had such a setback.”
The Hatton Garden safety deposit box jewellery raid was the largest burglary in English legal history.
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Over the Bank Holiday weekend, April 2 to 5, a gang of mostly elderly retirement-age criminals broke into the vault of the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company.
After climbing down a lift shaft and drilling through the wall, they stole an estimated £14million in cash, jewellery and valuables, only a fraction of which was ever recovered.
The safety deposit boxes in Hatton Garden vaultGetty
The raid has since been dramatised on TV, radio and in films, including King of Thieves starring Michael Caine.
Objecting to the proposals on the planning portal, one local business owner said the plans “for a heist-themed drinking establishment fundamentally undermines the integrity of the area.”
“Transforming a recent, disruptive crime site into a theme bar shows a clear disregard for the surrounding business community, existing traders, and victims who operate in the immediate vicinity,” they wrote.
“Hatton Garden requires planning decisions that support sustainable, traditional businesses rather than disruptive nightlife concepts that capitalise on illegal activity.”
A local jeweller said that a themed bar would be “wholly inappropriate and disrespectful” to victims of the robbery.
“The Hatton Garden burglary was not a fictional story or a harmless piece of local folklore,” they said.
Inside the vault following the raid in 2015Getty
“It was a serious criminal act that had devastating consequences for real people and businesses.
“Many jewellers and traders lost stock, livelihoods and, in some cases, personal savings that had been placed in the vault precisely because it was believed to be one of the safest places in London.
“For those who worked in Hatton Garden at the time, and particularly those directly affected, the repercussions were very real and in some cases life-changing.
“To commercialise, celebrate or make entertainment out of such a crime is, in our view, deeply insensitive and in extremely poor taste.
“Hatton Garden has an extraordinary history as the centre of the British jewellery trade, with generations of skilled jewellers, craftsmen and family businesses contributing to its reputation.
“That is the heritage that should be celebrated—not a criminal act that caused enormous distress and financial loss to members of that very community.
“We therefore strongly oppose this proposal and believe a “Hatton Garden Heist” themed establishment would be wholly inappropriate and disrespectful.”
A victim of the Hatton Garden raid also wrote: “I was a victim of the Hatton Garden robbery and do not appreciate someone trying to profit from my misfortune.”
Pearl & Coutts has been contacted by The Standard for comment.
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