Max I’m afraid that this ex-J.W.Levy & Sons employee from many years ago is trying to capitalise on the Levy name. To compound the felony he has also managed to obtain a ’phone number with the same last four digits as Levy’s Holborn Circus address.
When I moved South from Fishers for Safes Ltd in Glasgow to the Levy Head Office in Holborn in 1983 Levys’ were just about to be taken over by Borewood Holdings who owned John Tann. This finally happened about 1986 when Levys’
as such ceased trading and everything, including the Museum, moved to Borehamwood factory.
It was Josh Levy’s grandfather who started the business as you say in 1888. He had been a merchant navy seaman who jumped ship in the US and took work in the Mosler factory. He returned to England with his young son and opened his business as Mosler’s Agent in Holborn Circus in 1888.
Being right opposite Hatton Garden couldn’t have beeen a better situation but even more advantageous was the fact that his seamanship skills with ropes and rigging enabled him to install his safes in the highest buidings in the City. His stables were also coveniently situated in the adjacent Bleeding Heart Lane.
The story goes that old man Levy ran into difficulties selling his combination locked safes after Conan Doyle had made the comment through the ‘great man’ that combination locks could be manipulated! This led to Levy’s eventually having the largest used safes business in the UK. Josh would fly from Northolt round the all the main safe dealers buying anything of quality. This bore great fruit during the war years when new safe production for other than Government almost ceased entirely.
So, the name J.W.Levy & Sons and my family firm Fishers for Safes Ltd now only exist in some Gunnebo Head Office document safe file under the heading ‘no longer trading’.
