Inside London’s Hidden Silver Vaults

If you’re looking to pick up some dazzling antiques, look no further than the London Silver Vaults.

From sparkling jewellery, decorative candle sticks, to a cucumber slice dated back to 1805, the vaults sell thousands of pieces of silverware.

John Walter is the current proprietor at William Walter Antiques, a third generation silver dealer who first opened their doors back in 1940, to keep London’s silver hoard safe against the Nazi's bombs.

John has worked at the vaults since he was a child.

He said: “My grandfather first came down here in 1940 and he used it for storage and from then on it just grew into an antique centre.

“He died in 1970 and then my father came down, and now it’s mine.

“We have an individual shop within a complex of shops down here. There’s probably 30 shops down here all selling silver. You can buy everything from a spoon from the 16th Century to a 1930’s silver-plated machine gun or a horses hoof ink well.

"There was nothing that wasn’t really made in silver. I think in the days before television people got a bit of cabin fever, trying to work out what to do with their money next.”

Anyone wishing to enter into these vaults will have to pass through their vigilant safety measures. Multiple thick, heavy-duty, doors, protect the impressive collection of silverware

John said: “This is in the top five most secure buildings in the world. I think its number four behind Fort Knox, The Bank of England, I think there is another one in America, and then this place.

“Each of [the shops] have got our own door which we close at night and then we go out through that lower entrance and then that’s got a giant door and then we go upstairs and that’s also got a giant door so there’s and then there’s steel railings as well so there’s pretty impenetrable really.

“Effectively we’re a safe deposit within a safe deposit. We’re a bank vault within a bank vault.

“We have thousands of pieces – things for a few pounds to my most expensive item nearly a million.”

Over the years, John has served some familiar faces.

He said: "We get a huge mix of customers. We’ve had lots of famous customers over the years. I remember as a kid we used to have Ursula Andress, Rex Harrison.

“A lot of people from the Dallas cast, a few prime ministers, Joanna Lumley. Some I haven’t even recognised.

“They’re pretty amazed when they come down, well of course i’m effectively institutionalised having been down here all my life I view it as normal but when people come down they’re like ‘wow.'"
"It is quite an amazing experience coming down for the first time, because there is nothing quite like it in the world actually.”