Kate Leigh, Sydney’s “Worst Woman” was an in-demand sly-grogger, a popular brothel madam, drug dealer, and hardened criminal who had done repeated stints of hard labour in gaol that would have cowed lesser men, let alone women. Yet, she was also a generous community figure who got along equally well with the ‘haves and have-nots.’ Did you know that she ran her empire from a succession of houses in Surry Hills? Find out more here.
Kate Leigh: The Early Years
Born Kathleen Mary Josephine Beahan in 1881 in Dubbo, Kate – also known as Katherine Lee, Katherine Barry, and Katherine Ryan — was raised a Roman Catholic and attended the Parramatta Industrial School for Girls until the age of 16.
As a teenager just released from school, Kate found work in the factories and shops of Surry Hills and Glebe. As a teenage runaway, she led gang wars in Surry Hills.
Just after the turn of the century, Kate was arrested for vagrancy in 1901, and did 14 days of hard labour in gaol. That was the first of her many stints at Long Bay Gaol.
Her troubled younger years and subsequent fall into disrepute soon landed her firmly on the wrong side of the tracks. By her early 20s, she was working as a prostitute to raise a daughter born out of wedlock.
Around 1914, whilst living with other criminals in the slums of Frog Hollow, Kate helped plan the Eveleigh Railway Workshops payroll heist. She was caught and sentenced to Long Bay Gaol for five years.
Buying Her Riley St Home in Surry Hills
From her teenage years to young adulthood, Kate settled into a life of crime where she gained wealth and notoriety as Sydney’s Queen of the Underworld, a cocaine trafficker, sly-grog trader, brothel madam, and gangster.
Upon her release from prison in 1919, Kate saw a profitable business opportunity as a sly-grog trader taking advantage of the Liquor Act 1916, which shut down legal pubs at 6:00 p.m. Anybody looking for a thirst-quencher had to find another venue, and these were Kate’s operations.
During her peak, she had over two dozen bootleg outlets, catering to the Sydney’s worst residents but also doing brisk business among an upmarket clientele made up of the city’s ‘reputable’ businessmen.
To the authorities, she often said that she didn’t consider sly-grogging to be a criminal activity. Instead, she believed to be a service to the community.
Her lucrative sly-grogging business allowed her the means to buy a property on 104 Riley St, Surry Hills, which eventually became the centre of her empire. She also became “one of the wealthiest and most flamboyant” Sydney-siders.
According to “Razor” author Larry Writer, Kate Leigh succeeded because she never tasted any of her drugs or alcohol, unlike her competitors. She was also generous and charismatic to the underdogs and the members of the razor gang, despite being perceived as a “sinister, shadowy character.”
Killing in Front of Riley St
In 1930, Kate Leigh shot John William “Snowy” Prendergast in front of her house after he tried to break in. However, Kate was not indicted for the killing.
Following the incident, Kate’s Riley St property was raided and investigated by Judge Laurens Armstrong and the Sydney Police. She denied any illegal wrongdoing but authorities found a stash of cocaine in the premises. She was sentenced to 12 months in prison.
Years later, the properties along 98 to 106 Riley St were ordered demolished and then replaced with what is now known as 98 Riley St.
Kate Leigh’s Other Houses in Surry Hills
Kate also had a house at 2 Lansdowne St, Surry Hills, where she lived with her second husband. It became known as the brothel Lansdowne Hotel and was frequently raided by the police, yet she used to host Christmas parties for the kids here, blocking off the streets so they can enjoy themselves in peace.
Kate’s last known address was a dilapidated four-bedroom Victorian terrace home at 212 Devonshire St, Surry Hills. It was one of the properties she acquired during the peak of her illegal trade and it became the haven of her later years.
The property was named Mum’s. Kate lived there until 1964, the year she died of a stroke. A nephew who ran a fruit shop downstairs took care of her.
She was 82 years old when she died, and she no longer had a fortune to her name. She had gone full circle — a determined country girl who started with nothing, achieved criminal notoriety and wealth in the city, and then gradually lost it all in the twilight of her years.
In 2015, the house at 212 Devonshire St was sold for $1.7 million. It used to house a cafe called Sly. Today, the Jazzy Cafe Bar does brisk business in the place where Sydney’s notorious vice queen finally found peace.
