My desk at work is one of the few in our office without a
window, but our lucky photocopier has sweeping views of Surry Hills from the
back window. Whenever I need to copy and bind some practice parts or perusal
scores, my attention is drawn to a really interesting building across the road
with “Griffiths Teas” painted in fading white letters on the outside. It has
been vacant ever since I started 3 years ago, and I always wondered what the
story was behind the building and why it is no longer in use. A quick internet
search turned up a surprising amount of information about the place.
Apparently Griffiths Teas was started by an Englishman who
immigrated to Melbourne in the early 20th century, and he opened a
location in Sydney to cater to thirsty commuters arriving and departing from
Central Station. The business had closed by the 1960s, and from there the
building was leased to a variety of tenants; when I walked by the building today
there were old signs for a furniture business, as well as posters for various
brands of power tools (in addition to the original signage advertising tea and
cocoa). The windows and doors are all boarded up, and it seems that the only tenants
now are pigeons.
View from street level
It looks like some sort of hardware store might have been
here
The loading dock area is no longer in use, so now it's a scooter parking zone
A bit more research indicated that the owners of the
Griffiths Teas building are a reclusive elderly couple named Isaac and Susan
Wakil, who own several properties in Sydney valued around $75 million. Rather
than develop them, they prefer to keep the buildings vacant and watch the value
increase over the years. At least that’s what the public suspects is the reason
for keeping the buildings vacant; the Wakils have never replied to requests for information about it and are almost never seen in public. However, their Rolls Royce can frequently be seen parked outside the offices of
their business, Citilease.
