A landmark Surry Hills loft heads to auction in Sydney

The loft occupies level two of the Edwards Tea Building at 56-60 Foster Street – a 1926 warehouse constructed for tea merchants Edwards & Co. The Federation building is one of the city’s most enduring landmarks and houses five whole-level apartments.

This one puts its scale front and centre, with soaring 5-metre-high ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, and an all-white minimalist colour scheme amplifying its sense of volume. Original 100-year-old hardwood floors run throughout, and the old warehouse beams are on show, though they, too, have been given a lick of paint.

According to the listing, Moulin Rouge! and The Great Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann held his nuptials to costume designer Catherine Martin at the apartment in 1997. More recently, fashion photographer Geoff Lung used it as his studio.

Since then, the light-filled Surry Hills dwelling has been redesigned by Iain Halliday of Australian firm BKH as a serene residential space.

Among his interventions are a stainless-steel chef’s kitchen, a 7.4-metre-long Carrara marble dining table for 20 people and a media room, transformed from the warehouse’s old safe room for storing paper money.

The four-bedroom Sydney property is listed with Luke Hagan and Mark Foy of McGrath, with an estimate on the application. It goes under the hammer at 3 pm on Saturday, 2 September 2023.