It's a wrap! Marvellous metal in Greville Street by Groupwork + Amin Taha

Last week I was wandering along Leather Lane becoming a bit despondent at how the market has lost its proper 'anything and everything you need' vibe as it was when I worked in the area in the 1980s. I mused that it was still decent street market selling all sorts until the early 2000s. In 2011 I wrote about how London street markets were gradually diminishing. Then Covid-19 hit our street markets hard* and these days all you are likely to find here, or any of the other previously vibrant markets such as Berwick Street or Whitecross Street, is street food, although I'd counter that buying a meal in a box that you need to sit down and eat with cutlery on a flat surface doesn't constitute street food. There are no bite-sized snacks, pasties, or fried locusts on a stick available. Anyway... I digress.

Memories of Lether Lane market got me thinking about the places and businesses that were in the Hatton Garden area in the 1980s when I used to work in Bleeding Hart Yard. This was a name that almost everyone thought I'd made up. No need to swear love! I can't recall anyone back then talking about the bloody legend of the spurned lady. This vague info I had discovered on a panel outside the wine bar restaurant by the same name in the corner of the yard. The pic above is a screen grab from Google dated 2020 and shows a pub on the corner of BHYard and Greville Street. Despite all the info written on the pub's exterior, it certainly wasn't a pub in the 1980s or else I'd have used it! I'm told it was a café, but I don't remember that. 

Today I am more interested in the building on the left side of the street. In the pic above you can see a sample of what was to happen here, attached to the corner as a test piece. I was keen to see how that had evolved. Well, it's marvellous. They've done it again!  As per at Clerkenwell Green and Upper Street. 

Here we have a mesh surround that allows light through and it's just lovely. I'll leave it at that. Go see for yourself, or find out more here. 

In 1981-1983, I used to work for a small advertising company in the building that's partially visible in the bottom left picture, though my drawing board/desk was on the other side of the building, facing east.

 *Markets – The big supermarkets offering a one-stop-shop, trollies and car parking, have been a major factor here, and I hear that youngsters are not keen to continue a stall-holding businesses when their costermonger parents retire.

Treasure House, 19–21 Hatton Garden

This is one of those 'how did I never see this before now?" moments...
Hatton Garden has for many centuries been London's "Jewellery Quarter" – the place to buy and/or trade in gold, silver, precious gems and diamonds.
In the early 1980s I used to work just around the corner within a grubby inner courtyard off Greville Street called Bleeding Heart Yard (before anyone knew where that was) and at lunchtime I'd find bargains in Leather Lane market (when there was a much greater variety of goods for sale) or I'd just go for a wander about and go back to work with something tasty from Grodzinki's Bakery.
So how come I had never noticed the panels above 19-21 Hatton Garden until last month?! Jeez! I even used to drink often in the Mitre which is accessed through an alley a few doors along from this building!

Treasure House (1906) has Art Nouveau styling on the doors with panels above depicting the story of gold from its ore to being a wearable item, though they don't appear to be in a chronological order and all the figures are muscular and godlike and hence shown naked whether mining or just admiring their own reflection. Perhaps having spent all the money on gold they can't afford clothes?!
I have tried looking for the name of the company who was originally here but so far not found anything, though I did find some info Ornamental Passions here. If you do know more, please do let me know