Buying Jewellery in Hatton Garden
Whether it is really cheaper, why there are three hundred jewellers on a few streets, and what to ask before you hand over a card. Written from a bench on it.
Alpoe London, Hatton GardenPublished
Yes, Hatton Garden is usually cheaper for an engagement ring — and the reason is worth understanding, because it also tells you when it will not be.
A ring bought here has generally passed through fewer hands. Many of the businesses on these streets have their workshop upstairs or a few doors along, buy stones from dealers in the same postcode, and hallmark round the corner. There is no distributor margin, no brand licence and no flagship rent folded into the price. On a like-for-like specification that difference is real and it is often large.
What it is not is a discount on the diamond itself. A stone of a given weight, colour, clarity and cut trades at roughly what it trades at, wherever you buy it. Anyone quoting far below the rest of the street for the same stated specification is describing a different stone.
Why are there so many jewellers here?
Because the trade arrived and then compounded. Diamond cutters fleeing persecution in Antwerp and Amsterdam settled in and around Clerkenwell from the late 1600s. The street itself is older still, and takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton, to whom Elizabeth I granted part of the Bishop of Ely’s estate in 1576.
The growth is documented precisely. London Museum records 11 businesses in the jewellery, watch and clock trades in Hatton Garden directories in 1807, and 264 by 1907— among them 35 silversmiths, 45 jewellery manufacturers and 78 firms dealing in diamonds. At its peak, the museum records that as much as 90% of the world’s diamond supply was marketed through the Garden. Today the quarter holds roughly three hundred jewellery firms and retailers.
Concentration is self-reinforcing in a craft trade. When the setters, casters, engravers, polishers, laser welders, dealers and the assay office are all within a few minutes’ walk, making jewellery here is simply cheaper and faster than making it anywhere else in Britain — so everyone who makes jewellery comes here, which makes it cheaper and faster still.
When Hatton Garden is not cheaper
Three cases, and it is worth saying them plainly.
- Against a discounter selling online only. A website with no premises, no bench and no counter has a lower cost base than a workshop does. It also cannot put three stones in front of you, cannot size the ring on the day, and is a different proposition when something needs putting right.
- On a branded piece. If what you want is a particular maker’s name inside the ring, you are buying that name and it is priced accordingly wherever you buy it.
- When the specifications are not the same. This is the one that catches people. Two quotes on “a one carat solitaire” can differ by thousands and both be fair, because colour, clarity, cut grade, fluorescence and whether the stone is natural or laboratory-grown are all still unstated. Get the specification in writing and the comparison becomes trivial.
How to buy well here
Ask for the grading report
And check the certificate number matches the inscription on the stone’s girdle — a jeweller will show you under a loupe. GIA grades most natural stones, IGI most laboratory-grown ones. A hallmark is not a substitute: it tests the metal and says nothing about the diamond.
Ask where it is made
Some shops here make; some buy in and resell. Neither is wrong, but it changes what can be altered, how quickly a problem is fixed, and who you are actually talking to when something needs adjusting.
See stones side by side
Two diamonds with near-identical certificates can look markedly different across a counter, and no photograph will show you that. This is the single largest advantage of buying in person, and it is free.
Get it in writing
Carat, colour, clarity, cut, metal, finger size, and what resizing costs if it is needed. A written specification is what turns four quotes into a comparison rather than four conversations.
What is actually on the street
The quarter is small — a few hundred metres between Holborn Circus and Clerkenwell Road, with Farringdon and Chancery Lane stations at either end. Three addresses are worth knowing.
- The Assay Office counter, 17 Greville Street
- Where pieces made here are independently tested and hallmarked. Its main office is at Goldsmiths’ Hall in the City, but the counter being inside the quarter is why hallmarking a ring made here is a walk rather than a wait. What the marks mean.
- The London Diamond Bourse, 100 Hatton Garden
- The trading floor the quarter grew around, descended from the syndicate that distributed rough diamonds through London. Members trade with each other rather than the public.
- The workshops
- Mostly upstairs and mostly unmarked. The shopfronts are the part you see; the benches, casting rooms and setters that make the quarter work are on the floors above them.
Where we fit
We are one of the jewellers on it, so treat this page as written from a bench rather than from nowhere. What we do is bespoke: rings and pieces made to order at our own bench, natural or laboratory-grown stones with no steering toward either, and watches bought, sold and sourced alongside. If you would rather start by reading, the diamond guide and the ring size guide are the two things people ask about most. If you would rather come and look, book a time — or simply walk in.
FAQS
Usually, for a comparable ring — often meaningfully so against a Bond Street or high-street equivalent. The reason is structural rather than promotional: many businesses here have their workshop on the premises or a few doors away, so there is no distributor, no brand licensing and no flagship-store rent inside the price. What you are not buying is the marketing. What you are buying is the same metal and the same certified stone.
The range is wide, which is the honest answer. The street holds everything from trade suppliers to designers whose work costs more than a chain retailer's, and a diamond of a given weight and grade costs roughly what it costs wherever you buy it. What differs is the making, the setting and the margin — so the useful comparison is not shop against shop but specification against specification.
Because the trade settled here and then compounded. Diamond cutters fleeing persecution in Antwerp and Amsterdam settled in and around Clerkenwell from the late 1600s; London Museum records 11 jewellery, watch and clock businesses in Hatton Garden directories in 1807, and 264 by 1907. Once the setters, casters, engravers, polishers, dealers and the assay office are all within a few streets of each other, it is far cheaper to make jewellery here than anywhere else in Britain — so everyone who makes jewellery comes here.
Diamonds. It is London's diamond and jewellery quarter and has been for well over a century — at its peak, London Museum records that as much as 90% of the world's diamond supply was marketed through the Garden. It takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton, to whom Elizabeth I granted part of the Bishop of Ely's estate in 1576. It is also, unavoidably, known for the 2015 safe deposit burglary, which had nothing to do with the working trade.
Both work, and they suit different errands. Walking in is the right way to get a feel for the street and see what things look like in daylight. An appointment is better once you are close to deciding: it means somebody is held for you, the stones you asked about are out of the safe before you arrive, and you are not competing for a counter on a Saturday.
Four things. Ask to see the diamond's grading report and check the number on it matches the stone's girdle inscription. Ask whether the piece is made on site or bought in. Ask what happens if it needs resizing, and whether that is charged. And ask for the quote in writing with the specification on it — carat, colour, clarity, cut, metal and finger size — so you are comparing the same ring when you walk down the road to the next counter.
Yes, with the ordinary care you would take anywhere. Look for a business with a real address you can return to rather than a room in a mixed building with no name on it, insist on a written specification, and remember that a hallmark is an independent test of the metal by an assay office and not something a seller can issue themselves. If a price is far below everything else on the street for the same stated specification, the specification is usually where the difference is.