Simon Wittenberg goes through the keyhole to unlock the secrets of the cutting-edge high-security safe deposit facility on Mayfair’s famed Park Lane thoroughfare.
Once a lane in the park lined with ten Victorian mansions, only two remain in their current form, with one of these being the Grade II listed Stanhope House, which sits opposite the five-star Dorchester Hotel – also a mansion in its heyday (named after Dorchester House).
Commissioned by soap baron Robert Hudson and built at the turn of the 20th century, it sports a grey gothic-like architecture from the outside. Shields and gargoyles form the detail, and ornate carvings crafted by hand carry through to the impressive interior wood panelling of the main reception area at street level.
Home to Barclays Bank and its underground safe deposit facility up until 2016, and with Barclays Private Bank still occupying neighbouring premises, Stanhope House at 46 Park Lane, now Qatari-owned, was deemed to be the ideal location for IBV International Vaults London and has since stood at this address since signing a lease for the ground floor and basement in 2017. This was followed by a further significant investment funding a two-year refurbishment programme orchestrated by the South African architect Brian Johnson.
Better to Be Safe than Sorry…
The mastermind behind the rapidly expanding IBV International Vaults business is entrepreneur Ashok Sewnarain, who started the IBV journey in 2004 after he spotted a business opportunity at a local bank in his native Durban, South Africa. At the time, there was no provision to put valuables in a secure facility, most notably in a city that has a high rate of crime.
From this, an idea was born, with Ashok then subsequently travelling the world visiting existing safe deposit facilities. This was with the sole purpose of aggregating learning to create one of the world’s most advanced and secure safe storage facilities, now thought to be playing second fiddle only to the likes of Fort Knox in the USA and the Bank of England.
Whilst on this tour, Ashok met Sean Hoey (above), who was working at the time at the Victorian Harrods Safe Deposit facility in Knightsbridge, which dates back to 1896. It was this very well-spoken and charismatic gentleman who Ashok considered a safe pair of hands for his UK site, appointing Hoey as Managing Director of IBV International Vaults London, who subsequently closed the door on his career at the renowned department store that spanned more than three decades.
IBV International Vaults London, which started trading in February 2020, on the very cusp of the pandemic, is today one of ten IBV International Vaults locations across three different continents, which stretch across the globe via Switzerland and Dubai, and between them, the highly successful business boasts over 40,000 esteemed members.
Against the global geopolitical backdrop, and with some economies carrying greater risk than others, London is today considered a safe haven for many. It is with this aura that Stanhope House has gained its status as the IBV flagship location, where demand today comes from afar afield as China, India, and America, amongst other countries.
Hiding Away Safely
One of the core pillars of IBV’s offering is the provision of total privacy for clients, and that they can be safe in the knowledge that there will never be any questions asked as to what is being stored, nor does the law permit Hoey and his team to do this. This means that there is no central record of what is kept where, and no estimated value as to what lies within.
However, this shroud of secrecy does not extend to the safe holders themselves. Gone are the days of individuals providing aliases and fictional names; IBV is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and runs, like banks, comprehensive and strict identification checks on prospective clients hailing from anywhere in the world, regardless of whether they have billionaire, celebrity or royal status.
Once accepted and underlined by an element of trust, they are also bound by their agreement to IBV’s strict terms and conditions, which dictate what can and cannot be stored—namely, anything illegal, such as drugs and even animal tusks.
Similarly, safe holders are also asked to name a next of kin should they pass away whilst in possession of the key. In this scenario, which the Mayfair facility has not yet encountered, IBV will equally make a concerted effort to track down a deceased person’s executors and will—a task made slightly easier by the realms of social media and search engines—to hand over any items to their new rightful owners.
No Stone is Left Unturned
Greeted at the locked front door by the security officer—the first line of ‘defence’- IBV International Vaults London only operates from Monday to early Saturday afternoon due to high net worths tending to travel at weekends. This, however, does not compromise security to any degree. On the contrary, in-house CCTV watches every move, a system that is also connected to the global control room in South Africa.
If this was not already sufficient, two other external observation units, which are tasked with keeping an eye on every single one of the ten sites simultaneously around the clock, means this multi-tiered approach delivers no let-up in surveillance for a single second.
Cameras are, of course, just one part of the security equation, with biometrics also playing a crucial role. Once through the front door, where access does not have to be by appointment, a safe holder or any other listed individuals who have been granted access needs to peer at the camera to have their iris scanned or fingerprint checked to enable them to descend via the wood panel and red carpet-lined staircase into the vault itself (there is no lift due to the building having listed status), before encountering further security “hurdles” to conquer.
At the foot of the stairs, visitors are greeted by a smaller second reception area boasting a preserved and mighty heavy three-tonne Chubb door with a spinning handle hailing from the Barclays era and dating back to 1945. This is a mere reminder of what top-class security used to look like – and what is now a fraction of the level of protection IBV London offers its clients today, and that effectively allows the business to stand out from the competitors in the capital and beyond.
They also use the highest-grade doors complete with vertical bars, reminiscent of what you would expect to see in a maximum-security jail, of which there is more than one before reaching the safes, all walls, floors and ceilings are lined with steel panels housing built-in intruder alarms which will be activated with any ounce of movement or vibration coming from of these directions. This is effectively to avoid ingress through the means of drilling or tunnelling, synonymous with the Hatton Garden heist of 2015.
To gain access to the safe room itself, the holder must clear the gazing eyes of Mitchell, the second security officer, who sits in the control room behind bulletproof glass capable of withstanding shots fired from an AK-47 rifle. They will then encounter a fingerprint scanner – the first stage to be able to unlock a safe with a physical key i.e. it’s a two-lock system.
Shielded from any ounce of daylight and onlookers, and with a preferred “one-in, one-out” policy to maintain the promised exclusivity, the pristine NASA-like room, where not an ounce of dust can be seen, is lined floor to ceiling with 561 Swedish-made silver safe deposit boxes of nine differing dimensions, with a starting price of £580 per annum for the A-box (about the size and thickness of a PC keyboard) – suitable for un-boxed watches and rings, for example. This extends to the largest size (which carries a cost running into the thousands), which favours those from abroad due to their desire to shut away more items of value when not a resident.
With current healthy demand, despite charging a premium for the highest degree of security compared to the pricelist of rivals, IBV International Vaults London will shortly be creating a second room through the conversion of a temporary office, which backs onto the IBV Gold showroom (below) and a private event space—the domain of Fifi Morgan.
Even in the digital era that we live in, there are no coded combinations on safes to remember, but it’s instead a traditional lock and key that is the final chapter to grant access to a safe.
The highest-grade locks (worth in the region of £50 each) are replaced each time a safe changes hands, so that the lock and two keys are always completely unique to every owner (and anybody else they choose to list). IBV does not hold a master, so losing the keys, and the privilege of calling a specialist locksmith costs in the region of £250 – a process which must be witnessed by the client themselves.
A Private Transfer
At the very heart of the quadrant of safes is a small, frosted, glass-enclosed cubicle (above) furnished with a desk and chair. This is the only location where there are no cameras, and for good reason. This is because it is a completely anonymous area where ‘visitors’ can transfer valuables into one or more lockable velvet-lined IBV-branded boxes, depending on the size of the chosen safe, in complete privacy with no questions asked, and with nobody looking on, from either IBV or beyond.
One of the other unique selling points of the IBV business is that safes can be held for as little as three months at a time, and insurance is always included at £100,000 worth of cover for the contents, as part of the fee, or £50,000 for the smallest size.
The idea behind this, is that individuals stowing items of significant value externally helps drive down home insurance costs, meaning it really is a win-win scenario. Greater cover is of course available at a cost, coming in bonds of £250,000.
In Summary…
After witnessing the magnificent facility first-hand that Ashok Sewnarain and his team have created, you can’t help but be impressed and in awe of the engineering and innovation and the great lengths that IBV International Vaults have gone to so as to create a new echelon of sophistication in the sphere of security. This means that clients always have the important peace of mind that any valuables stowed are under the very highest degree of protection around the clock – a philosophy that rings true today, as it did more than 20 years ago when IBV first set its sights on the safe deposit market.
IBV International Vaults London – Where and How?
IBV International Vaults London is located at Stanhope House, 46 Park Lane, Mayfair, London W1K 1PW, United Kingdom. For more information or to make an enquiry, visit www.internationalvaults.com.
See highlights of our visit on the Luxurious Magazine Instagram page.
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