Fire-ravaged factory to be resurrected in fresh hotel proposal

The former Hendersons Hat Factory in Sydney's Surry Hills, which was destroyed in a devastating fire in 2023, will be rebuilt, as part of an amended development application to construct a hotel on the site.

The original application to convert the heritage-listed warehouse into a hotel was submitted to the City of Sydney in 2019. According to the amended development application, construction on the hotel was close to starting when the fire destroyed the existing buildings.

Designed by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, the original scheme proposed to stitch together the former factory building at 11-13 Randle Street, designed by architect Thomas Pollard Sampson, with infill building on two neighbouring lots at 15 and 7-9 Randle Street.

The original scheme also proposed to add another two levels to the exisiting building to create a 123-room hotel and 770-square-metres of commercial floor space, accommodating a restaurant, cafe and bar.

According to its statement of heritage significance, "The former R.C. Henderson factory forms part of one of the largest known collections of industrial and warehouse buildings of its kind in Australia, which records City of Sydney's past as one of only two historic industrial heartlands in Australia. This collection of buildings provides evidence of Australia's twentieth century transformation through industrialisation when Sydney became one of the largest industrialised cities in the South Pacific."

The amended development application states that "Following the fire and demolition, the external form and detail of the brick walls to the former Henderson factory will be rebuilt and windows reinstated to their original detail including the later windows that will be replaced to match."

Previously proposed works will be carried out to the rebuilt elements as approved.