Lansdowne Street, Surry Hills

– G’day, Charles Touma here. Now last week I brought you the story of “the worst woman in Sydney” who used to live at 104 Riley Street in the magnificent Surry Hills. Today I’m on Lansdowne Street to talk about chapter two of the Kate Leigh story….and what a piece of work she was. After a spell in Long Bay Jail, Leigh saw a great opportunity from a new piece of New South Wales legislation that had been put in place in 1916 known as the Liquor Act. This law ordained that all drinking establishments must close by 6:00 pm. Leigh pounced on this by creating what was known as a chain of “sly grog shops” all over town, including several in Surry Hills. Some reports suggest that she had up to 20 sly grog shops in total at her peak. She was able to charge a premium price for those who wanted a drink after 6:00 pm. She was constantly being arrested and in fact was charged with an offence 107 times leading to 13 spells in prison. Her huge cocaine supply network that spawned from those sly grog shops as well as her chain of brothels did business with many influential people, and it was alleged that these connections enabled her to remain in business despite her arrests.

She was known to turn up in court wearing diamond rings on each finger, dressed in very flamboyant and expensive clothes. In 1933, she moved into a house here at 2 Lansdowne Street. She used it as a brothel and her central hub for the network of sly grog shops. Clients would refer to it as the “Lansdowne Hotel”, though not to be confused with the legitimate hotel of that name in Chippendale. In 1938, Leigh’s then husband and bodyguard Jack Baker was shot outside the house here by a renowned gangster, John Chow Hayes. This incident proved to be the turning point for Leigh’s business as it led to further investigations across Leigh’s empire resulting in another prison arrest. This investigation also closed another of her Surry Hills sly grog shops at 13 Pearl Street, as well as multiple properties on Devonshire Street. The 2nd world war also had massive impact on her cocaine supply via the sea. The navy patrolled the coastline and installed strict rules around boats coming in. In fact, when Leigh died in 1964, she was still living in one of her old brothels which she had also been used as a sly grog shop at 212 Devonshire Street. In 1954, she had been targeted by the Taxation Office and had to declare bankruptcy. In 1955, the sly grog trade was virtually wiped out when hotels were allowed to sell alcohol after 10:00 pm.

When she died, 212 Devonshire Street had become derelict from the lack of funds, however, her funeral was a standing room only at St Peter’s Catholic Church on Devonshire Street with 700 people in attendance. Despite being considered the worst woman of Sydney, she had developed a reputation of generosity towards the unemployed. Now I’ve been selling real estate in Redfern and Surry Hills for 20 years and I’ve sold many properties in this vicinity including 18 Edgely Street, a two-bedroom terrace which I sold last month for $1.615 million, and I also sold an apartment at 215 at 508 Riley Street a few weeks ago, a one bedroom which I sold for $990,000. I hope you found this story of the worst woman in Sydney, interesting. This area has many more stories to tell, and I’ll be digging them out over the coming few weeks. My name’s Charles Touma and my office on Thurlow Street’s always open to come in and have a chat.