RESIDENTS in Sydney’s CBD were evacuated from their homes after a massive fire broke out on Randle Street in Surry Hills, near Central Station, destroying the seven-storey Randle House building and threatening apartments surrounding it.
It was not certain whether Randle House was occupied when the fire began at around 4pm. Initially a hat factory, in recent years it had been used as commercial and co-working offices and studios before planned redevelopment into a hotel.
Hundreds of people looked on as the gutted building’s front and rear walls collapsed entering into peak hour.
“More than 100 FRNSW firefighters, from 20 fire trucks and multiple stations, are now working to contain and extinguish the blaze,” Fire and Rescue NSW said in a statement at around 5pm.
“The building is starting to collapse, while the inferno is beginning to spread to several neighbouring buildings, including residential apartments.”
Randle House has addressed over time as 11 Randle Street and 11-13 Randle Street. In 2019, Sydney-based developer Hanave lodged a development application for a 123-room hotel to be built across 7-15 Randle Street. Plans included demolition of the existing buildings at 7-9 and 15 Randle Street, retention and re-use of 11-13 Randle Street, and construction of a nine-storey building with two levels of basement across the sites including through site link between Randle Lane and Randle Street.
Documents lodged with City of Sydney put the project at an estimated cost of $39.4 million. The project was approved in 2020.
A conservation management strategy document had been prepared by the City of Sydney on behalf of Hanave in 2017. The 11-13 Randle Street Edwardian property was a seven-storey factory building constructed in 1912 for ladies’ hate manufacturers R.C. Henderson Pty Ltd, established in 1905 by Charles Alfred Henderson and his son, Rolla Crosby Henderson.
— it wasn’t me (@it_w4snt_me) May 25, 2023
The company collapsed in 1954 and the property sold. The building continued to be used to manufacture millinery and clothing. Later owners carried out works to divide up the spaces and upgrade services, and the building had been used for offices and studios in recent years.
The listing sheet for the property said, “The building makes an important contribution to the streetscapes of Randle Street and Lane and Elizabeth Street, located in close proximity to Central railway station and the corner of Elizabeth Street.
“The imposing height of the building for its period of construction, no setback from its two street frontages and irregular building footprint following the non-grid street pattern make the building a distinctive feature in the streetscapes, which is visible from a number of near and distant aspects in the local neighbourhood.”
7-9 Randle Street was constructed in 1908 for the Reverend George Soo Hoo Ten, a deacon of the Anglican Church, who purchased the site in 1907 that was part of the 1904 land clearances by the State Government associated with the construction of the new Central Station. It appears to have been a speculative development by the minister, according to the document, and the factory was leased initially to a firm of Chinese cabinetmakers. The property was sold in 1920 to Taylor and Adams Limited who extended the building to the rear in the same year. The building was damaged by fire in 1927 and bought and refurbished by R.C. Henderson and incorporated into the bigger building next door.
15 Randle Street, on the triangular site at the corner of Randle Street and Randle Lane, is a six-storey commercial building with two levels of modern additions over the earlier, four-storey, brick building. It has been refurbished and modernised throughout with open plan and cellular offices, all to a modern detail, and there is an open plan gallery on the ground floor.
