Sly grog, drugs and hired thugs: Dilapidated house where 'Queen of the Underworld' Kate Leigh ran her empire during Australia's razor gang era goes on sale for $1million... so would YOU live there?

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It's the house where the woman known as the Queen of the Underworld lived and operated her criminal empire until her death.

Inside the dilapidated Victorian terrace in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Surry Hills, Kate Leigh sold drugs and illegal alcohol to society's upper classes, businessmen as well as thieves and prostitutes.

The home where she lived on Devonshire Street - one of 20 properties she operated as sly grog shops, including three on the same Surry Hills street - is now up for sale. Number 212 was the largest and known as 'Mum's'.

Protected by a team of bashers and gunmen, and her own fearsome reputation, Leigh was a flamboyant and sometimes vicious character who by the mid 1920s was being called 'the most evil woman in Sydney'. 

If walls could talk: In the dilapidated kitchen of 212 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills where queen of the Sydney underworld Kate Leigh ran a drug den, sly grog empire and standover operation for three decades. Leigh's house is now up for sale and should fetch more than $1 million

Kate Leigh, or Kathleen Barry as she was known during her marriage to small time crim and sly grog dealer Teddy Barry, sold cocaine, other opiates and operated a brothel but she was best know for her sly grog shops which thrived when Sydney's pubs were closed down after 6pm following a riot

The house at 212 Devonshire Street in Sydney's inner city suburbs (pictured) has fallen into a dilapidated state some of its ground floor interiors resembling the original terrace which Kate Leigh inhabited until 1964 when her fortune had dwindled and she died

Kate Leigh's residence (pictured, centre) sits on a trendy Sydney street and has operated as a flower shop and now a cafe called Sly, which nods to Leigh's illegal groggery, but the interior of the residence is in a dilapidated state

Although she never drank alcohol or took drugs, Leigh happily dealt in both and acted as a stand over merchant, sold stolen property and occasionally shoplifted.

From the early 1920s to the 1940s, men crowded the streets outside her establishments at nightfall on Friday and Saturday nights to gain entry and purchase the alcohol she sold illegally.

They were called 'Mum's' as an allusion to the pass code of calling around 'to see Mum'. Leigh operated in Devonshire Street, Surry Hills during the height of the razor gang era, when she built a reputation as a woman not to be messed with. 

The kitchen of the crime queen's old house is in dire need of renovation, but real estate agents selling the property say its dilapidated state is a golden opportunity for buyers to transform the historic property

Although she never drank alcohol or took drugs, Kate Leigh (pictured) happily dealt in both and acted as a stand over merchant, sold stolen property and occasionally shoplifted

The outdoor toilet at the back of the property (pictured) at 212 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills in Sydney's inner city suburbs where thieves and prostitutes bought illegal alcohol after it was banned, allowing a flourishing trade in sly grog

Kate Leigh, pictured as a younger woman in her prison record when she served time at the Long Bay women's reformatory in Sydney 

By the 1940s, Leigh was known as a larger than life character - wealthy, greedy, funny and generous to those she felt sorry for - whose name as a female criminal was rivalled only by another, Leigh's bitter foe, brothel queen Tilly Devine.

Devine was then in her late fifties and 212 Devonshire Street was one of her rougher establishments, another Surry Hills house at 2 Landsowne Street being her largest grog shop.

Leigh and Devine are characters in the true crime book Razor by Larry Writer, which dramatises the criminal gang rivalry in Sydney's inner suburbs in the early 20th century when gang members slashed their opponents with cut throat razors.

The Nine network dramatised the book in the series Underbelly Razor, portraying Leigh and Devine as glamorous figures.

Leigh was well-known among politicians and police officers, and well-liked by some, although she was called 'a sinister, shadowy character,' in the NSW Police Force Archives, according to an extract in Larry Writer's book.

Leigh had originally come from the central western NSW town of Dubbo where, as Kathleen Beahan, one of eight children of a Catholic bootmaker, she had been put in a girls' home at the age of 12 and gave birth to her first child, Eileen, the following year, in 1900.

The kitchen inside Kate Leigh's old house is dilapidated and has been left to fall into disrepair despite the front of the dwelling being renovated several times to house a flower shop and then a cafe

Graffiti on the walls and an old poker machine in the living area at the back of 212 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills

Mug shot: Pictured at Central Police Station after one of her many arrests, Kate Liegh still cut a stylish figure

A number of musicians have lived or visited 212 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, in the decades since Kate Leigh's 1964 death and the now deceased estate is being sold for more than $1 million

Kate Leigh, pictured at her 2 Landsdowne Street,Surry Hills house with her second husband, sly grog dealer Teddy Barry dressed as Santa Claus for one of their generous Christmas gift givings

The walls of Kate Leigh's old house have been adorned with graffiti for many years now 

By the age of 15, Kate married her first husband, Jack Lee, a half Chinese illegal bookmaker and petty criminal.

In 1905, Lee was imprisoned for assault and robbery and Kate was accused of lying under oath to protect her husband and convicted of perjury and for being an accomplice to the assault.

Her conviction was overturned on appeal, but the marriage was over. She anglicised her name to Lee and by 1922 she was married to sly grog dealer Teddy Barry.

They separated, and she lived with one of her bodyguards Wally Tomlinson, who had a reputation as a tough stand over criminal in the 1920s, the razor war years.

Leigh had established her lucrative sly grog business well before then, capitalising on the 1916 edict by the then NSW Premier, who following a riot of pub crawling World War I soldiers, called a state of emergency and closed Sydney's pubs after 6pm.

Real estate agents say the house is ready for a complete renovation and is an opportunity for someone to tunr the old sly grog shop into a stunning property

Another view of thre makeshift kitchen inside 212 Devonshire Street Surry Hills, the Sydney property that was a sly grog shop and drug den in the 1940s

Bitter lifelong rivals Kate Leigh (above, left) and brothel madam Tilly Devine (above right) made up in later years when the two crime queens were nearing the end of their careers

Kate Leigh was living in 212 Devonshire Street, Surry Hils (pictured from the 1950s right up until her death from a stroke in 1964, when she was 82 years old

Anybody thirsty after then would come to 212 Devonshire Street, and Leigh's fleet of illegal grog shops throughout the inner suburbs. When cocaine was outlawed in 1927, Leigh sold both, at at huge profits.

Occasionally she was arrested for robbery, theft or, like in 1943 when police found 1001 bottles of beer, 84 bottles of whisky and one bottle of win underneath the floorboards of her Surry Hills house.

Two years later she appeared at Central Police Court in Sydney charged with having phenobarbitone in her possession.

Leigh was by then in a de facto relationship with her business partner, Jack Baker, but in 1950, she married convicted West  Australian criminal, Ernest 'Shiner ' Ryan, the first Australian to use a motor vehicle in a payroll hold-up.

It was Kate Leigh's final marriage and it lasted six months. Kate Leigh was living at 212 Devonshire from 1951.

After alcohol sales in pubs were banned in 1916, drinkers would come to 212 Devonshire Street (pictured) and Leigh's fleet of illegal grog shops throughout the inner suburbs. When cocaine was outlawed in 1927, Leigh sold both, at at huge profits.

Kate Leigh the sly grog queen and her criminal rival, brothel madam Tilly Devine pretend to be friendly but theirs was a bitter relationship

A People Magazine article a year earlier described her and Tilly Devine as 'the queens of Sydney's slumland' with 'an empire of brothels, gambling joints, verminous flop-houses , sly groggeries and gin mills'.

 The article described Leigh - then aged 63 - as 'stooped, fat and blowsy'but with 'little piercing eyes' which 'indicate her tremendous vitality'.

It said she had once been the 'best looking girl' in Surry Hills and had become tremendously wealthy through being a tough businesswoman.

'She is tougher than most men, can punch, bite and gouge with the fierce courage of an animal,' the magazine wrote.

''She is popular with the kids, particularly with her Christmas gifts. Every school lunch hour they cram her shop, laughing at her jokes.'

A 1950 magazine article described Kate Leigh, who lived at 212 Devonshire Street (pictured) for many years as ' tougher than most men, can punch, bite and gouge with the fierce courage of an animal'

Kate Leigh's old house in Sydney's inner suburbs had been operating as a cafe called Sly, a nod to her old sly grog business which operated after dark on the premises in the 1920s-1940s

A newspaper report from May 1943 reports that police have raided Kate Leigh's Surry Hills house, finding 1001 bottles of beer and 84 bottles of whisky under the floorboards

Underbelly Razor cast beautiful actresses in the roles of Tillt Devine (in the red hat ) and Kate Leigh (in the black) hat in a glamourised version of the razor gang era

One of the walls in the dilapidatedhouse once occupied by the queen of the underworld, Kate Leigh

Sydney criminal Frank Green, whose prison file is pictured (above) was an associate of Kate Leigh's during her long criminal career as a drug and sly grog dealer

The article said Leigh's 'official' occupation was shop keeper of a mized busienss from the Surry Hills house and that 'she gives money to the Salvation Army and to church charities. She gives parties.'

It quoted her saying she and Tilly Devine had buried their rivalry in their old age. She said she had been to prison 13 times, but 'never for prostitution' and that the police left her alone now because everything was now legitimate.

In Larry Writer's book Razor he writes that in the 1960s, Kate Leigh was living at 212 Devonshire Street, but that she was by then impoverished - because aftre hours grog had been legalised.

Her nephew William Beahan was operating the fruit and vegetable shop out of the ground level  room at the front of the house.

The house at Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, as pictured in the real estate advertisement for its sale

At the age of only 13, Kate Leigh gave birth to a daughter, Eileen, who is believed to be the woman in the white hat (pictured, above) in a group shot of criminals at Central Police station early last century

A judge in 1933 (above, left) says that criminal Kate Leigh 'has a good side' when she appeared in court on a charge of receiving stolen goods, whereas in 1953 (above, right) a magistrate declares Leigh's Surry Hills residence' a disorderly house'

The cafe called 'Sly' which operates in the bottom of Kate Leigh's hotel and is a reference to her illegal grog shop of the eraly 20th century

'Broke and embattled, Kate did her best to earn a little money, selling illegal alcohol from friends' homes and rented rooms,' the book says, but the NSW Government had put her out of business in 1955 by extending hotel trading hours to 10pm.

 'Kate's only income was what she could scrounge occasionally hiring out hand-carts to vegetabel and fruit hawkers for twp shilings and sixpence a day.'

On January 31, 1964, Kate Leigh suffered a stroke at 212 Devonshire Street and she was taken to St Vincents Hospital where she died on February 4, aged 82.

Her funeral at St Peter's Catholic Church in Devonshire Street, just up the road from her home, was attended by 700 people, including the police and politicians she had known during her career.

The NSW Police Archive quoted in Larry Writer's book is part admiring but mostly damning of Kate Leigh's role in the Sydney drug trade.

'No more remarkable woman ever strode upon the stage of Sydney's nightlife than this middle-aged, matronly dame,' the extract says.

'She plays a dominating part in the tragedy which is spelt D-O-P-E. She meets young women in cafes and hotel lounges, and she ingratiates herself with them. Such a nice, agreeable dame! Such a monster in human disguise. 

'For she deals in a commodity that means ... the warping of the moral outlook, the damning of the eternal soul. 

Clever and unscrupulous enough to know that once a victim is made, she becomes a sure customer for life. ... It is a tragic but terribly true thing a great percentage of fallen women who walk the pavements of Sydney are drug-takers.'