TREASURE VAULTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23761, 14 September 1940, Page 2 (Supplement)

TREASURE VAULTS

Millions in Gold and Gems 'Beneath London's Pavements

NEITHER bombs nor fire can reach treasure estimated to be worth £500,000,000, which is buried below London pavements. It includes gold, precious stones, works of art, priceless knick-knacks, valuable documents, and banknotes. It belongs to inhabitants of half the lands of the world. "

DUG out of the primeval clay on which four famous London streets stand are Safe Deposits—miles of steel-lined corridors, with thousands of iron safes and hundreds of concrete strongrooms. t The first to be built ill England, in Chancery Lane, covers squaio feet, and is completely fenced in by a concrete wall four feet thick. There nro 250 strong-rooms and 7000 safes in that stronghold. Locks Cost £2OO Each Each of the vaults weighs 500 tons, and has a two-ton door controlled by intricate time-locks which cost £2OO each. Each safe has two locks, the key of one held by the Bank and of the other by the rente'r. Both have to bo used to open the safe. These strongrooms, which range in size from a large box to a small shop, are rented for from £lO to £l5O a year. Small iron safes are available at 255. a year. Hitler's threat to invade Holland sent Dutch art treasures worth £5,000,000 into British safe deposits. Hitler's own people also tricked him out of the treasures he coveted. Germans have stored gold, silver, and precious

stones of immense value beneath Lon- ■ don pavements. - One safe* contains the life work of a '. German scientist. He smuggled the papers of his formulas out of Berlin just before the war -and the secret of his discoveries is safely hidden where Hitler's bombs could never penetrate; Guards Day and Night Queen Mary keeps some of her most intimate treasures in a safe beneath a London street. In the same deposit were stored foreign bonds by the Spanish Government during the recent civil war. ; ~, . Safe deposits are patrolled day and night by armed g.uards. Mirrors are fitted at the angles of the corridor surrounding the main strong-room sp that the whole of the corridor can be seen at once. -