The UBS vault in its Place St-François 1 building was one of the biggest in Switzerland at the time of its closure. It contained 7 different types of locks from two banks safe makers. It was build over 3 floors with only one entrance from the top. The entire safe vault was surrounded by a 1-meter-wide security corridor that circumscribed it. From this corridor, a guard could inspect the entire outer wall of the safe across all three floors.

For all its historic charm, size and popularity, this wall was on the wrong side of the road. UBS had restored its former competitor building just across the road in 2001 and had ample space in a state-of-the-art, modern facility, for all its local and regional banking operations in downtown Lausanne. The Place St-François 1 building was then made redundant and clients were asked to move the contents of their safe deposit boxes to the new vault across the road. We stepped in and bought the safe deposit box installation.

The 3 Floors and their uses
The first floor, located one floor above the ground on the Rue Centrale side, was a mix of Combination, Secret Combination and Classic doors, with many oversize doors. All of our cabinets come from this floor. The vault door was a huge electronic steel affair with little charm and too many kilos - we left it there. An inside elevator led elderly clients downstairs.

The basement, located on the ground floor on the Rue Centrale side, had all of the Fichet 'butterfly' doors and some Modern doors. It also housed the huge Fichet fireproof cabinets.

The lower basement, located underground next to the river Flon, had two kinds of Modern doors, installed at different times.

Although safe deposit boxes numbering ran well into the 9000s, there were only about 5000 separate safe deposit boxes in the vault. We could salvage only a small number.