THE hidden world tucked behind the glittering facade of Hatton Garden has been lovingly explored by Leigh author Rachel Lichtenstein for her latest book.

“My grandfather was a watchmaker. He had a shop in Brick Lane and another shop in Whitechapel,” says Rachel. “Before he moved to Whitechapel, just after the war, he used to trade with the antique dealers in Hatton Garden – my family have this very long-running connection with the street.”

The book, Diamond Street: the Hidden World of Hatton Garden, is the second in an intended trilogy and the follow-up to her 2007 On Brick Lane.

Rachel explains: “The idea was to explore different London streets in an experimental way and from lots of different perspectives. The books are to be a kind of trilogy. They have this combination of oral history, testimony, lots of archival material, but also have me walking around with lots of different experts.”

It was her personal connection to Hatton Garden, famous for its jewellery making and diamond trading, that first sparked Rachel’s interest. Her research took her beyond the street she knew and into a fascinating, private world as she began to strip back the layers of the street and its surrounding area.

“When I walked around with author Iain Sinclair he described it beautifully,” says Rachel. “He said ‘Hatton Garden is the fold in the map’, even many Londoners don’t really know about it.

“What you see on the street is not really what it’s about. There are all these jewellery shops and then the sense of these many, many hidden places both above and below the street.

“There’s the subterranean river and then above, the many secret little workshops where all those exquisite pieces of jewellery are made by hand.

“Many of the jewellers started as 14-year-old apprentices. They have worked their way up and own their own businesses. I was really fascinated by this hidden world.

“Dickens kind of haunts the area. I walked around with a Dickens expert and there was so much to say, I could have written this book forever.”

At the heart of the book are many conversations Rachel conducted with jewellers working in the hidden workshops behind the shopfronts.

“One of the inspirations for starting the whole investigation came from this character called Mitzy,” says Rachel.

“Mitzy was an elderly Jewish man with a very bad limp. He limped down Hatton Garden in a pair of dirty old trousers tied up with a piece of string.

“No one knew much about his background. There were all these rumours he was a millionaire and lived somewhere in Essex with a beautiful wife.

“His workshop was piled with boxes, with dust and cobwebs on every surface, and there was nothing dated past the Second World War. He handmade gold wedding rings, like my own, using a 17th century method that’s almost like spinning gold threads. He had a great deal of strength in his upper body and that really sparked my imagination.”

Rachel worked as a sculptor before turning her talents to writing and running alongside the book release is a special exhibition at a gallery in a watchmaker’s workshop.

It amalgamates many of her findings, recorded conversations and sculptural explorations of her research. It also incorporates precious possessions, including Rachel’s grandfather’s jeweller’s loupe – through which he would scrutinise the intricate workings of the watches he made.

Sight Unseen is at Tintype Gallery, St Cross Street, London, from May 30 until June 9. Diamond Street: the Hidden World of Hatton Garden is released on June 7 through Hamish Hamilton.