Lord Of The Rings

There can’t be many in these parts who have had a career quite as ‘glittering’ as Rodney Banks-Lyon. The charming Lancastrian is a top diamond grader who over the past quarter of a century has pedalled everything from silver pendants to £250,000 Rolex watches. He’s even sold a gem-encrusted condom holder to foreign royalty. Ellie Hargreaves meets the North’s very own lord of the rings.

Banks Lyon Jewellers in Lancaster has built up quite a reputation over the years. Royalty shop there, premiership footballers flock there and any man who’s about to pop the question heads to the Church Street shop if he really wants to impress. As well as boasting some eye-watering diamonds in the window, the store prides itself on attention to detail and faultless customer service. And it’s a combination that works – this year Rodney Banks-Lyon celebrates 25 years behind those gleaming glass cabinets and according to the books he’s going through one of his busiest periods yet.

The 53 year-old, whose family lays claim to being Lancaster’s longest serving retailers, has come a long way since his father told him to get a job at the age of 19. “Everyone thought I would join the family business, which is shoes, but I had no interest in shoes,” he says as we sip tea from china cups in his oak-panelled consultation room. “I was dossing around, wondering what to do with my life when my father issued an ultimatum – join the business or find another job.”

Rodney’s move into jewellery came when he saw an advert for an assistant at H. Samuels in Morecambe. Although he was initially pipped to the post, fate stepped in when the successful applicant failed to show up for work and Rodney got a phone call saying the job was his if he agreed to shave off his beard. He acquainted himself with a razor and within two years was made assistant manager.

Further promotions followed, along with a move to the premium end of the jewellery market with jobs at Mappin & Webb and Goldsmiths, and just as Rodney was dreaming of opening his own shop he was approached by an independent jeweller with an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“He told me he wanted me to oversee the opening of a new store in Bristol and it really felt like fate; it was the perfect opportunity for me to gain some real experience and discover all the pitfalls of starting a new business.”

When he was ready to go solo, Rodney struck a deal with his father that would allow him to take over a third of the family shoe shop now run by his brother Jonathan, if he qualified with the National Association of Goldsmiths and become a Fellow of the Gemmological Association.

Having kept his side of the bargain (in fact he was just one of a handful of FGAs in the country to qualify with a distinction) he opened Banks Lyon Jewellers in October 1985 and within a year had become an official Rolex agent.

In 1995 he bought the former Lancaster Guardian offices next door and moved, before reopening the original shop a year later as a specialist silver store.

Nowadays there is little silver under Rodney’s roof aside from that belonging to Links of London and Pandora – the name behind the latest charm bracelet craze.

The rest of the shop focuses on premium pieces – platinum, tanzanite and stunning diamond rings that sell for tens of thousands of pounds, or one-off designs and limited edition watches that are so sought after customers will travel the length of the country to have one on their wrist.

“A lot of our customers travel up from the south because we have some hard-to-come-by pieces. The internet has played a big part in raising our profile too  – we not only sell online but we’re on Twitter and Facebook and the other day I had a chap up from Brighton because he’d seen something he wanted for his wife on the website and decided to make a weekend of it,” says Rodney.

Although he’s tight-lipped when I ask if Cheryl Cole got her new TAGHeuer watch from him, he is willing to recount the time a member of foreign royalty visited the shop while staying in the area.

“It was when we sold a lot of gifts and they came in and bought a whole selection – including a rather splendid condom holder,” he says, straight-faced. “The girls in the shop spent ages beautifully wrapping the items and we delivered them to where they were staying only for the security service to rip the paper off and start inspecting everything.”

While his line of gifts now centres around a more than respectable cabinet of Mont Blanc pens and leather, bespoke, made-to-order jewellery is also now available, courtesy of Rodney’s right-hand man Bob Breden; a designer who lives by the diamond world’s four commandments (cut, colour, clarity and carat).

Put Rodney and Bob together and they can wax lyrical for hours on what makes the perfect stone and both often head to Antwerp and Israel to handpick their diamonds.

This spring, the oak-panelled room we’re sitting in will be transformed into a Diamond Gallery too, leaving more room in the rest of the shop for Rodney to display watch brands including Omega, TAGHeuer and Breitling and jewellery by the likes of FOPE and Georg Jensen.

“Branded jewellery is very popular nowadays,” he says. “People associate names like Chopard – and of course Rolex and Cartier – with a beautiful lifestyle and they want a piece of that.

“We’re very proud to be agents for some of the most exclusive brands because they are so very particular about who sells their pieces. The shop has to look the part, the team has to be one hundred per cent clued up and if our customers don’t receive the greatest care and attention the brands would soon withdraw.

“None of this is a problem for us though, because providing excellent service is our forte.

“Customers come to us because they trust us to provide them with the finest watches and jewellery they seek at sensible prices. Buying online is impersonal and there are abundant risks; although
our website is very popular we prefer to give our customers the full retail experience and coming into the shop is all part of the pleasure.”

I suspect it’s that – and the theatre of seeing Bob roll on a soft black glove and present you with a tray of exquisite jewellery – is why Banks Lyon will still be here in another 25 years.