Incredibly lucky restaurateur, or why hundreds of safe-cells with 1,000,000 pounds of contents were forgotten?

In 2010, hundreds of safe cells were found in the basement of an old bank. This building was bought by a restaurant by Jamie Oliver - a famous British chef and TV host, the owner of Jamie's Italian restaurants.

The cells contained jewelry, gold, master tapes of the British groups Joy Division and New Order, and even firearms. All this at the time of detection was estimated at 1 million pounds. Since cell owners could not be found, their contents were transferred to the state.

According to the statement of the former owner of the HSBC bank, the holders of the safe-cells, as well as what was in them, could not be made public due to the privacy policy.

In the building, bought by Jamie Oliver, previously was Midland Bank. In 1992, he merged with HSBC. The building was designed by Edwin Lutyens in 1928, and in 1935 the Midland Bank opened in it.

In 2008, when HSBC moved to a new building, the bank had to take the cells with it, but since the building was a national heritage and the safe deposit boxes were part of its structure, the cells were not able to take the cells with them. And because of the privacy policy they were not opened and left everything in place.

A spokesman for HSBC said that “no drill was ever used to open the cells - we just used the keys that we had”.

Jamie Oliver purchased the property in 2010, and the renovation of the building began in March 2011. For years, Oliver had planned to open an Italian restaurant in Manchester, but there was still no suitable place.