As part of this year’s Coutts London Jewellery Week, being held June 8-14, the Hatton Garden Festival will offer members of the public unprecedented access to the area, dubbed London’s historic jewellery quarter. From Thursday June 11 – Saturday June 13 June, the Festival will showcase the diverse expertise of London’s jewellers, allowing visitors to gobehind the scenes for rare glimpses into individual workshops to experience jewellery design and manufacturing first-hand.

During the Festival, jewellery-making demonstrations will take place in the street, along with children’s workshops. Also expect to see costumed actors, musicians, a fine food market, and a host of jewellery themed walks, talks and workshops. Theatre students from the Central School of Speech and Drama have been commissioned to decorate the street with signage and other embellishments that aim to entice visitors to explore exhibits.

Jewellery will be on display at Platform, a new exhibition space, featuring a range of pieces of industry’s history, from The Cheapside Hoard-–a collection of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewellery discovered by chance during the early 20th Century–to designs present-day talent. Meanwhile, the trail around Hatton Garden will feature fine jewellery displays from Davril Jewels, David Marshall, and Star Jewellers, and contemporary designs by Adam’s Gold (who will be opening up their casting workshop to the public). Exhibitions at Nicholas James will also take place, as well as manufacturing demonstrations courtesy of Laser Surgery. Other designers around Hatton Garden are also getting involved–listen out for the launch of Amanda Mansell’s latest collection which is accompanied by an audio installation recreating sounds from the jewellery workshop. After-work tours will be available on the Thursday and Friday for local businesses keen to find out more about the area.
 
Another attraction during the three-day festival will be the installation of an outdoor manufacturing tent, curated by Jacob’s Jewellery; Visitors will be able to walk through the creation of a piece of jewellery, with gemstone experts (from Holts Lapidary), polishers (from F Sinclairs), engravers (RH Wilkins) and setters (Ember). Experts will be on hand to talk about each stage of the process and there will be a prize draw to win one of the pieces created on the day.

Coutts London Jewellery Week is organised by the City Fringe Partnership, with funding from the London Development Agency, and is sponsored by Coutts. 

Visit www.londonjewelleryweek.co.uk for more information about the Hatton Garden Festival and Coutts London Jewellery Week.

JCK