A new storage facility for precious metals and other valuables has opened in the heart of London's fashionable St James's district.

St James’s Street in the heart of London is well-known for its smart clubs, retailers of fine clothes, fine wines, cigars and yachts. It now can boast a safe deposit box business that caters to continued demand for gold and other precious metals in these uncertain times. 

Sharps Pixley, the bullion dealer, has opened the safe deposit box business located alongside its gold showroom. It has more than 2,300 boxes protected by what the firm says are “state-of-the-art 24-hour security systems". 

The boxes are not solely for storing clients’ gold but can be used to store other valuables, the firm said.

The company said it wants to emulate the model that has already proved successful for its German parent company, Degussa, and which has been rolled out across its various branches in Switzerland, Germany, Spain and Singapore. 

The firm said it is rolling out such a service at a time when high street banks have phased out their own safe deposit box services to concentrate on other business areas. Prices for a safe deposit box start at £250 per annum ($362), and larger boxes are priced at £550 and £1,250 accordingly. All boxes are sold with £10,000 of liability included. Customers are able to increase the liability up to the value of £100,000 at an additional fee, or for large volume metal buyers Sharps Pixley will offer alternative custody arrangements in its own vault, it said.

“A safe haven is not just what you buy; it's also where you keep or protect it. In our experience as a top trader of gold bars and coins we are increasingly seeing our clients requiring private, discrete protection and it's a service that banks are no longer offering. Our new facilities will be able to match this growing need be it for our bullion products or anything else they wish to store,” said Ross Norman, the firm's chief executive.