Reservoir St, Surry Hills

Gday Charles Touma here, and today I’m outside 116 Reservoir Street where a gentleman by the name of Richard Mewjork was born in 1929. Now, I’m telling the childhood story of Richard not because he was famous, but because he related his life story 10 years ago and it paints a great picture of what life was like in Surry Hills in the decade before the World War. It’s only through these stories of people like Richard that we can understand what our neighbourhoods were like back then. So Richard never knew his father, his mother raised him, she was half Chinese and half English. His original Chinese surname was Mui Jook Chau but as with many difficult to pronounce surnames, it was changed to Mewjork. His mum worked at a huge factory called Gadsdens which took up a whole block between Ann Street and Little Albion Street. It manufactured tin cans, containers and paper bags. Richard’s mum made the really tough paper bags that were used to sell cement, which were sewn together by hand. The sewing skills led to her becoming a dress-maker from home. She would take Richard around the Oxford Street shops and sketch dress designs that were in the shop windows then offer to make them for her customers which included local school teachers. She made all the dresses on a Singer sewing machine. Apparently, this area was full of first and second-generation migrants, Greeks, Maltese, Italians, many Chinese people, very few Australians. 

Surry Hills was a very cheap area to live and once residents could afford, they would move to Maroubra or North Sydney. The houses were not very comfortable and suffered from leaking roofs, leaking windows, and rotted floorboards. It just shows us how far the local real estate market has come because the build quality and living spaces here are now world-class, the median house price in Surry Hills is around $2 million, which is not far behind Maroubra. As a kid, Richard would ride his billy kart down Ann Street, down the hill where horse stables between Samuel Street and Campbell Street were full of trotting horses that would raid the local tracks like Harold Park and Victoria Park in Zetland. The local baker would deliver bread with his horse and cart, the local milkman also had a horse and cart with a huge milk tank on the back, and there was also a horse and cart rabbit delivery weekly, and a fisherman who would walk around the Surry Hills streets shouting “Fisho” every Friday morning, working with the Catholic tradition of having fish for dinner on Fridays. Richard would be taken out of Crown Street School early to help his stepfather, George, on his market stall where he sold potatoes, which meant trying to dodge the truant inspector. The market was demolished many years ago and made way for the Sydney Entertainment Centre. 

At this stage the family moved to 10 Smith Street in Surry Hills. His mother established a hamburger restaurant where George at the age of 10, was cooking for customers. It was located on Liverpool Street near Palmer Street in Darlinghurst, and was very popular with the increasing number of American servicemen that were in Sydney during the Second World War, particularly, as it was known as The Red Light District which attracted them to that area. As the main barracks in the area was in Paddington, Richard’s mum decided to sell Liverpool Street and bought an existing cafe opposite Regent Street, called the Regent Street Cafe. The hamburgers proved to be very successful, so she started another cafe next to the Oxford Theatre in Oxford Street. By this time Richard was 16, and old enough to run the new cafe. So there you go, that’s a snippet into life before and during World War II here in Surry Hills. I hope you enjoyed it. I’m passionate about this area having sold real estate here for 20 years, and I’m determined to keep these local stories alive. My name’s Charles Touma, and my office on Thurlow Street is always open for you to come in and have a chat.