On Wednesday, 14th December 2016, Robin Ellacott concedes surveillance of Mrs Two-Times to her husband at the Rosewood Hotel, London, and makes an impromptu decision, agreed with by Cormoran Strike, to interview Pamela Bullen-Driscoll at her family’s silver shop, Bullen & Co, in the London Silver Vaults on Chancery Lane.
When Kenneth’s wife Rachel’s father retired, he left the business to Pamela (Kenneth’s sister-in-law) and her husband Geoffrey. The three of them worked out a deal that Kenneth and Rachel took all the Masonic silverware, and so they opened Ramsay Silver on Wild Court.
Robin goes to the London Silver Vaults in Chapter 24 of The Hallmarked Man to interview Pamela.
“The Silver Vaults’ entrance was a discreet wooden door with a small glass awning. Robin was admitted after pressing a buzzer and found herself facing a uniformed security man, who asked to search her bag. She then had to sign in at the desk, and was instructed to descend three flights of stairs, and take no photographs outside the individual shops.” (Chapter 24)
The Silver Vaults were originally named The Chancery Lane Safe Deposit Company, and from 1882 provided rooms with steel lined, four foot thick walls into which the wealthy and aristocratic could secure their valuables whilst they were absent from their London homes. Demand for the subterranean rooms increased when the jewellers of Hatton Garden used the vaults to store their stock each night and, as the requirements of wealthy individuals declined, the Silver Vaults became a depository for the capital’s silver dealers.
The original Victorian building over the vaults was destroyed during bombing of London during WWII, but the vaults remained undamaged and dealers started trading direct from the vaults, finding a rich vein of customers in American military officers and subsequently their wives.
The vaults developed into retail spaces through the decades following the war and continue to be the ultimate destination for purchasing a myriad of objects wrought in silver from a wide variety of dealers and retailers, from behind a three foot thick steel door.
During a London trip to watch the filming of The Ink Black Heart, the StrikeFans team took time out to visit the vaults at Southampton Buildings in search of a silver nef, unaware at the time that it would be a specific location in The Hallmarked Man.
It’s a surreal experience; after entering through a very corporate-style building lobby and having our bags checked, several flights of stairs led to a network of corridors, rather like an underground prison, lined with individual doors and windows behind which were a dazzling array of silver items. The shop owners were very helpful and informative, and we were able to locate two large silver nefs, unfortunately we had all left our credit cards at home, so had to leave empty handed.
The London Silver Vaults are at 53-64 Chancery Lane. Find it on the map: