31 Hatton Garden

31 Hatton Garden is an early 19th-century town house, extended to the rear in the later 19th or early 20th century. It comprises four storeys over a basement and is laid out as a ground-floor shop with offices and precious metal workshops occupying the basement and top floor.

The building is constructed of London stock brick laid in Flemish bond with stone detailing and a timber shop front. It is terraced, facing west onto Hatton Garden. The ground floor has a central shop entrance and a further entrance to the south side. All four storeys and the basement are served by a single staircase.

The exterior is symmetrical, barring the offset main entrance, and classical in style. It is formed of three bays and four visible storeys. The ground floor features a timber shop front composed of four pilasters and a frieze supported by carved console brackets, surmounted by round-headed mouldings carved with a flower motif and the number '31'. The modern shop windows and doors are of glass and aluminium. The main entrance door, positioned on the south side, is solid timber with six panels and is topped by a rectangular fanlight painted with the number '31'.

The upper storeys are delineated by stone plat bands. Each storey contains three two-pane horned sash windows, which reduce in height as they rise. First-floor windows are set within shouldered stone architraves with flat-topped pediments. At second-floor level, the stone architraves have segmental pediments containing carved foliage around a central circular motif, with a central shell motif attached to the curved pediment and a figurine to each side. Top-floor windows are square-headed with a wedge lintel and central keystone carved with a decorative symbol. The elevation is terminated by a stone frieze with a band of composite modillions and decorative console brackets with round-headed mouldings to either side. The rear elevation is plainer, featuring four-paned sash windows.

The interior contains open-well stairs with a curtail step, wall string, wreathed handrail, open strings and turned balusters. The stairs are curved to achieve a return on each floor and are lit by a glazed roof light. The ground-floor stair side has 19th-century fielded panelling around a later door. Stone steps beneath the stair lead down to the front basement, which retains its original plan and extends under the pavement. A later 20th-century staircase at the rear of the entrance hall leads to the roof of the extension. A door from the rear hallway provides access to the extension, which is laid out as a large office with reception desk.

The rear basement, formerly a kitchen, is now a workshop with an open brick hearth and shallow timber-boarded shelving on metal brackets around the walls. It contains specialist tools and workbenches, mostly dating from the 20th century. To the front is a former coal store with hatch above and flagstone floor. At the rear of the workshop a multi-paned window and door open onto an external light-well. The top floor contains a small jewellery repair workshop with a 20th-century workbench. The entrance vestibule has a glazed and timber screen with a security hatch.

Elements of the original cornice survive throughout the ground, first and second floors. An early 19th-century black-painted fireplace with bracketed mantle and decorative round-headed fire basket is present, and vestigial remains of other fireplaces survive. Doors throughout the building are predominantly 20th-century, flat-faced and functional. The shop interior is functional with late 20th-century fixtures and fittings.