A new themed bar based on the famous Hatton Garden robbery is threatening to force out the oldest established shop in the area, which is run by the descendants of a Holocaust survivor.
Council planners are currently considering a landlord’s application to transform the safe deposit facility in Hatton Garden - the site of the famous 2015 heist - into a wine bar themed around the robbery.
The proposal would force Jewish family firm E Katz and Co out of the shop set up 80 years ago by Emil Katz, who fled the Nazis with little more than a string of gems sewn into his suit by his mother for safekeeping. The family’s shop would be bulldozed and replaced with a stairwell and lift access to the bar per the plan.
The business sits just above the safe deposit basement room, which six thieves entered through a lift shaft over the Easter bank holiday in 2015.
The gang then drilled through the 50cm thick walls of the vault and stole over £14 million worth of precious metals, cash and jewels, of which only £4.3 million has been recovered.
The case made headlines when it emerged in court that many of the thieves were over the age of 60, with all six jailed in 2016, alongside three others found guilty of involvement in the heist.
The case inspired several heist films, TV episodes, and a radio play, the most renowned of which is King of Thieves (2018), starring Michael Caine, Michael Gambon and Jim Broadbent.
The landlord of the property, Pearl & Coutts, plans to make the safety deposit boxes, the hole in the wall, and a gate broken in the robbery the centrepieces of the new bar.
The planned bar claims to “celebrate and enhance the heritage significance of the building” and would provide visitors with an opportunity to stay in the area after their shopping, increasing local tourism.
However, the application has already attracted more than 100 objections, with locals worried the proposal would “change the character of the area”.
George Katz, 86, who has been running E Katz and Co for almost 70 years, called the planned bar “ghoulish and completely inappropriate”.
“This is meant to be a jewellery quarter and it should be for jewellers, not developed into a theme bar,” he went on.
“A lot of people lost their livelihoods in the 2015 robbery. Most people didn’t have insurance as safe deposits are supposed to be rock solid… People had such a setback. I believe one person actually took their own life because his whole business was ruined.”
Katz is planning to pass over the business to his son-in-law, Robert Willis, and daughter, Louise, when he retires.
Willis said of the plans: “There was an armed robbery in Hatton Garden three months ago, 60 yards from our shop, this isn't something to make fun over.”
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."
They also expressed concern that the destruction of the shop would erase its history and the legacy of Emil Katz, who lost both of his sisters in the Holocaust.
Born and raised in Czechoslovakia, Emil fled to England in 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. His sisters did not join him and were slaughtered following the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia.
The rapid economic recovery which followed the war saw the demand for fine jewellery increase, and in June 1946 Emil persuaded the owner of 36-38 Hatton Garden to allow him to operate from the caretaker’s office on the fifth floor.
In 1955 the business moved across the road to 88-90 Hatton Garden, right above the site of the 2015 heist.
When Emil suddenly passed away in 1956, his wife Edith was left to run the business and raise their four children on her own.
Their eldest son, George, started an apprenticeship in jewellery manufacturing at age 16, and once completed, he began to help his mother in the shop.
George had wanted to go into medical science, but his plans changed to allow him to keep his father’s legacy alive.
Ben Massey, chief of the National Association of Jewellers, said: "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.”
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 business uses."
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