From a goblet to a grouse, London’s underground vaults are the gold standard on a silver platter
O utside in the Chancery Lane business district in central London it’s a mild April morning. Well-dressed pedestrians emerge from the Tube station and stride to work. The stately building we’ve been directed to blends into its surroundings with a softly aristocratic façade.
Two guards greet us from behind a high mahogany desk and we ask if a picture or two would be allowed. A definite no. With steel-lined walls rumored to be nearly four feet thick and a 24-hour security presence the world’s largest collection of silver for sale has never been broken into. But the proprietors are not taking any chances.
An elevator takes us down into London’s silver wonderland.
The London Silver Vaults originally opened as the Chancery Lane Safe Deposit in 1876 a place for affluent Londoners to store household silver jewelry and documents in underground store rooms. Slowly store owners also started to rent the vaults for their valuable stocks. When the original building was reduced to rubble by German bombers during World War II the underground vaults remained unharmed. In 1953 they were reopened as retail units at the request of many of the silver dealers who had previously rented space there.
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