Behind The Banham Shield

From the Banham locks on that iconic Notting Hill blue front door watched on cinema screens across the world, to our latest TV appearance in the BBC hit show Amandaland, the Banham shield isn’t just shorthand for security: it’s also a symbol entwined with Britishness, so much so that you’ll also find it referenced in renowned literature.  

“Then he heard the latch turn, one turn, two, it’s a Banham lock he remembered, my God we must keep Banhams in business,” wrote John le Carré in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Even with the high stakes of fiction’s favourite spies, Banham is the best of the best, offering security to be relied upon.

And nothing communicates that security faster than the Banham shield, instantly recognisable in the form of alarm boxes, on the door roses of our handcrafted front doors, and on the top of our patented dimpled keys. Before it became a pop-culture icon, the Banham shield first appeared in the 1930s, on the rose of some of our earliest locks. Fast forward to the 1990s, and we released our first external sirens in the shape of the shield. 

En route to becoming the shields you see today, some bore the figure of Burglar Bill, a nod to what set us apart in Banham’s early days. When our founder William F. Banham created the world’s first automatic door bolt, he got the word out with some maverick marketing tactics. First, he challenged London’s real-life burglars to break his lock (and when they couldn’t, Scotland Yard appeared to round them up). Then, he employed a mime artist to pose as a burglar in the window of Banham’s Oxford Street shop, winking at stunned passers-by. Some of our alarm boxes even carried the slogan “another burglar foiled.”

Before the dawn of the digital age, and the launch of our first computerised alarm-monitoring centre in Fulham, our alarm boxes displayed our phone number. As they began to appear on the best streets in London, we offered our alarm boxes in white and cream, and briefly silver, rectangular or round. To this day, you can still spot a few rare circular red boxes, a limited run of which were fitted during a supply shortage of classic white, which tie into those bright red icons of British architecture: phone boxes, post pillarboxes, and double decker buses.

But as the Banham name grew - until the sight of our signature alarm boxes above the front doors of Banham homes became a sign of quality, and a burglar-deterrant, that you could spot from the street - we’ve pared back the slogans and colours. Now just the shield is enough to put your mind at ease, and have Burglar Bill running for the hills. Our classic, elegant alarm box in the shield shape, available in timeless black or white, is architecturally versatile, to complement every type of home and business, from period to contemporary.

And spot them you can - the Banham shield can be found on country cottages, period townhouses, high street business and even embassies. We’re proud to be chosen to protect some very notable homes - though we won’t tell you which, since discretion is all part of the service. 

Around the turn of the century, we scaled down our now-signature shield until you could fit it in your pocket, on the Mark I key head; the same design is still used on our keys today. It encapsulates who we are and what we do; wherever you see the Banham shield, you know we’re looking out for you.