Diamond Street: The Hidden World of Hatton Garden by Rachel Lichtenstein
12 June 2012
Having written about Whitechapel and Brick Lane, Rachel Lichtenstein now takes on Hatton Garden and its famously secretive Jewish jewellery community.
She walks the streets, digs through the archives, interviews its oldest surviving characters and even succeeds in getting a guided tour of the subterranean Victorian sewers. She uncovers a world with a rich history, not just of “underground rivers, lavish gardens and forgotten palaces”, but one which still retains a distinctively Eastern European shtetl atmosphere, even though it has long ceased to be top dog in the diamond world. Lichtenstein’s family, including her grandfather, father and husband, have all worked there over the years and she weaves her childhood memories in brilliantly.
