Jim Broadbent in 2018 film King of Thieves, looking through the ‘hole in the wall’ which is still there

A DEVELOPER has abandoned a plan to open a Hatton Garden heist-themed wine bar following a diamond district backlash.

Hatton Garden Properties has written to the council saying it had “regretfully taken the decision to withdraw” it plans to transform the former site of the infamous 2015 safe deposit box hole-in-the-wall robbery.

Planning officers had made it clear they would not recommend the application for approval due to planning policies, the letter said.

The Extra had reported in August how the longest-serving jewellery retailer, George Katz, was being forced out of a shop his father set up 70 years ago after fleeing the Nazis with little more than a string of gems which his mother had sewn into his suit for safe keeping.

Dozens of Hatton Garden traders had objected to the plans arguing it would make a mockery of the trauma caused by the robbery.

On Tuesday Robert Willis, George’s son in law and director at E Katz & Co, told the Extra: “The campaign that we ran wasn’t particularly planned. It just happened. We tried everything we could but we didn’t imagine it would get going like it did. But the whole point of it is to secure legacy of the shop.

Scene of the 2015 Hatton Garden crime

“We don’t know what is going to happen next but we are now very positive. There is genuinely no ill-will toward the landlord from our point of view. We are all grown-ups. We want to move forward in a positive way and we want to stay here for as long as possible.”

He said when the story broke he went down to the library to get a big bundle of our newspapers, and put them up in the lobby.

He said: “They were all gone by the afternoon. It was really important, all that, I think.”

More than £14million worth of precious metals, cash and jewels was stolen by thieves who drilled through the wall of the shop beneath E Katz and Co in 2015.

The case made headlines around the world not simply for the audacity of the crime – which would not seem out of place in a Hollywood action movie – but the age of the thieves involved, many of whom were seasoned crooks over the age of 60.

Sir Michael Caine and Jim Broadbent were among the cast of King of Thieves, one of several crime capers and heist films inspired by the story.

Robert Willis and George Katz

In August Mr Willis’s father-in-law George told the Extra: “To my mind it is like when you have a car crash and there are people slowing down to look at it and see if there are any bodies there. It is ghoulish and completely inappropriate… A lot of people lost their livelihoods in the robbery.”

A string of businesses had backed the Katz family in the row saying a “change of use” of the jewellery shop to a bar could be the beginning of the end of Hatton Garden.

The developer had argued that the landlord, Pearl & Coutts, had made several attempts to market the space to other jewellery companies and the new bar would be a destination for tourists. But in the end Camden ruled a change of use from jewellery business to bar use would not be accepted by the council.

The letter from the applicant said: “The lawful planning position confirms that the existing accom­modation (excluding the vault area) is not restricted to jewellery-related uses and could be occupied for a range of alternative Class E uses, including a gym, café, restaurant, medical, or professional services use, without the need to obtain planning permission from the council for any such change of use.

“While it remains the applicant’s view that this lawful fallback position constitutes a material consideration which should be afforded significant weight in the determination of the application, it is understood that the council does not consider it sufficient to outweigh the requirements of Local Plan Policy E2 in the overall planning balance. In light of the council’s position, the applicant has regretfully taken the decision to withdraw planning application.”