The basement of a high-profile Bristol office building has been transformed into the city’s first privately-owned ‘James Bond-style’ safe deposit box facility, with the firm behind it saying it is meeting a growing but untapped demand in the city.
The Vaults Group, Europe’s largest private safe deposit box provider, has invested almost £1m in the purpose-built facility in the art deco 33 Colston Avenue, which is alongside a new business selling gold bullion.
It said it chose Bristol for the location of its nineth centre after receiving more than 400 advance inquiries.
Built from scratch, the vaults have hundreds of safety deposit boxes of various sizes – which can be rented from as little as £170 a year – and capacity to expand to several thousand boxes.
The boxes – familiar from James Bond films and countless heist movies – are protected by cutting-edge security and state-of-the-art technology, outstripping the standards set by banks.
Seismic shock sensors, round-the-clock monitoring and biometric identification technology ensure that access to any box is limited to the authorised person only.
Bristol Vaults also offers complimentary insurance of £10,000 on all boxes rented, with additional insurance available up to £500,000 per box. 
The Vaults Group, which was setup in 2013 by entrepreneurs Séamus Fahy and David Walsh, said a lack of safe deposit boxes for hire in the region meant it was attracting customers from a 30-mile radius with dozens already snapped up by private customers.
It has also benefited from a recent surge in sales of gold bullion – and particular interest in sovereigns featuring the head of Queen Elizabeth II – while the closure of most bank safety deposit vaults had created a gap in the market.
Rising burglary rates, increasing home insurance premiums, fears about the rate of inflation, world-wide economic volatility and most recently, the falling value of the pound have also generated interest, the firm said.
As well as cash and family heirlooms such as jewellery, the boxes are often used to store important documents such as title deeds, leases and wills, or items of sentimental value which are difficult or expensive to replace. Interest is also being driven by the rise of portable assets such as luxury watches and to store crypto-currency. 
They are increasingly being used by businesses concerned about the risk of hacking, to store back-up data on memory sticks and computer hard drives.
Vaults Group co-founder and chief executive Séamus Fahy, pictured, said: “We’re looking forward to providing a much-needed service that will ultimately give peace of mind to people who require a safe haven for their valuable and irreplaceable possessions.
“Cost-cutting measures at high street banks means that secure storage has largely been phased out and so customers are left with nowhere to store their treasured items.”
He also said burglars had become much more sophisticated.
“They know about the use of ‘dummy’ safes, storage compartments behind false electric sockets and in false tinned food containers and these days they turn up with blockers to cut the signal on phone-linked alarms,” he added.
“But it’s not just fear of crime that’s driving interest. Uncertainties in the worldwide economy, currency volatility, inflation and loss of trust in the banking system all play a part.
“We’re seeing a large number of customers buy gold and then rent a box to store it in and very recently, we’ve had a run on gold sovereigns from people who want a souvenir of the formers Queen’s reign and believe they will appreciate in value over time.
“Our customer base is extremely varied – it’s not just high net worth individuals. We have younger people wanting to store their crypto-currency and regularly converting their savings into gold, older people safeguarding their family heirlooms and increasingly, businesses choosing to store irreplaceable data.”
Bristol Vaults is set to employ up to 10 employees when at full capacity. The group plans to open new centres in Reading and Barcelona later this year.
All photos by JonCraig_Photos
