wylk wroteI expect it was also good for manufacturing. It is easier and more cost-effective to make boltwork that is merely functional, without making it all a polished piece of art.
Hello Wylk,
Indeed, but such embellishment had a purpose. Confidence. Such features were always put on show where the client or depositor would be impressed, even to the extent of placing the door in an Architrave of similar enhancement, usually in the main Banking Hall.
An example is within the same installation as the door illustrated but on an adjoining vault which houses the London Silver Vaults, a series of over 40 small strongrooms each containing the showroom of Silver merchants where the liabilities and conscience of the vault owner is not as onerous as in the Safe Deposit.
This is more or less an identical quality of door but without the SS cladding, crane hinge and full clenching mechanism.
Photography is not permitted of the main doors which no doubt accounts for the slight camera-shake.
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