Hatton Garden - Good for antique jewelry?

[Tiggsy]

Other half has a thing for antique jewelry....would rather something old and interesting than shiny, new in a Tiffany box. After spending an afternoon in Edinburgh (while there on a city break) looking in the few places there that do such stuff......I wondered if a day in Hatton Garden would be better. Is there a bunch of places doing 2nd hand stuff and is any of it at the lower price point? Not looking for anything expensive and grand.....she just likes picking up small things that catch her eye - certainly not planning on spending over £1k and some of the places in Edinbugh had little under that.

So - HG? Good for such stuff or somewhere better?

[NormalWisdom]

There are dozens of jewllers in HG selling S/H stuff, a lot of it is very decent quality and the pricing (when compared to the new stuff) is astonishing.

Mrs NW loves a stroll around there usually followed by a trip to the silver vaults in Chancery Lane (which is similarly astonishing in terms of how expensive stuff is!!)

[Dominic H]

As NW alludes, the Silver Vaults are worth a trip. Though as the name implies there's an awful lot of silver. In Hatton Garden you have the 'Heart of Hatton Garden' a New York style market place halfway down HG. Or you Ullman's a specialist in antique pieces, they're on Greville Street just off HG.

D

[Tiggsy]

Sounds good then....apart from the silver stuff - she hates silver!

And I assume its as simple as getting the tube to the nearest end and walking the length of the street?

Edited by Tiggsy on Monday 9th February 22:11

[Dominic H]

Yep, nearest tube stations are Farringdon or Chancery Lane.

[aeropilot]

[quote=Tiggsy]
And I assume its as simple as getting the tube to the nearest end and walking the length of the street?
/quote]

There's a few places just off Hatton Garden in Greville St that seem to do more 'vintage' stuff as well. As Dom says above, if you come in from Farringdon station you'll have to walk up Greville St past these shops to get to Hatton Garden anyway.

[Planet Claire]

Auctions are a good place to look, the big ones have sales dedicated to jewellery. Usually a mixture of antique and newish second-hand. Bonhams have a jewellery sale on tomorrow, the saleroom across the road from Harrods.
http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/22628/#/aa0=1&...

The good thing with these is that you can view online to see if it's worth the trip to view in person.