East End Promise By the time the 2012 London Olympics are upon us, a thriving but hitherto largely undiscovered community of jewellery retailers, a shot putter’s throw from the stadia, should be familiar to a great many. Belinda Morris pays a (long overdue) visit to East London’s jewellery quarter.
62 The Jeweller Aug/Sept 2010
here’s a street in London where you’d be forgiven for thinking that every other shop is a jeweller’s; the pavements are heaving with window shoppers and serious spenders alike and there exists a positively heady vibe of consumer consumption – even mid-morning, mid-week. To use the modern vernacular – there’s a buzz about the place. No, it’s not Bond Street. It’s not Sloane Street. It’s not even Marylebone High Street or Knightsbridge. This is Green Street. Where? Exactly. Until very recently this bustling, rather unpromisingly unpolished thoroughfare in East London’s Borough of Newham, was the jewellery lover’s best kept secret. Here a thriving community of South Asian retailers of fine and fashion jewellery have been quietly (I use this term in a marketing rather than literal sense) going about their business for the past 30 or so years, without attracting much attention from the jewellery industry as a whole.
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And the wider general public has also been unaware of it’s attractions. I, an unashamed jewellery junkie, lived in not-so-far-away Camden for 20 years, completely ignorant of the existence of Green Street. Oh, the wasted opportunities! But all this is on the cusp of changing. The two score or so jewellers – who jostle for space among fashionable sari boutiques, beauty shops and salons, Bollywood DVD outlets and restaurants – having hitherto operated in their separate spheres – have recognised that there are major advantages to uniting. So, almost three years ago, the Green Street Jewellers Association was born. And with the Olympic games now looming pretty large – and just a few streets away – it’s just one reason why this band of brothers is making its presence felt today. In reality, there wasn’t a collective Road to Damascus moment the length and breadth of Green Street. The coming together was in fact the brainchild of a handful of the more pro-active jewellers and coralling the rest
Main image: colourful opulence displayed in Satyan’s window.