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Boot Factory Restoration and Upgrade

We’re restoring and upgrading the Boot Factory and Mill Hill Community Centre. Breathing new into the building, we are transforming the former shoe making factory into a civic innovation hub.

The upgrade includes:

• Both buildings will be connected, providing an opportunity to share facilities including the lift.
• A café at the Spring Street entry to the precinct with street and courtyard presence.
• Upgraded Community and Seniors Centre
• Flexible community spaces on the ground floor and top floor of the Boot Factory and the Mill Hill Community Centre
• Upgrades to Norman Lee Place

Works started April 2021 and will be complete by October 2022, weather permitting.

Works will take place from 7am to 5pm, Monday to Friday and 8am to 3pm on Saturday.

Restoring the historic Boot Factory

What is the future for the site?

The Waverley Community Strategic Plan 2018-2029 (CSP) notes the community’s wish for Waverley to be a “knowledge-driven, innovative and digitally connected community”.
Residents said they wanted opportunities to:

• foster digital innovation
• improve use of Mill Hill to support innovation
• develop innovation hubs
• use multiple channels to communicate with, engage with and inform residents
• ensure that Waverley Library keeps pace with the knowledge economy.

The Boot Factory's future started here and was then reflected in the Operational Plan 2018/19 where Council said they would create an innovative space for business incubation and knowledge transfer.

Background

The Boot Factory, a former shoemaking factory at the rear of Norman Lee Place at 27-33 Spring Street was completed in 1892 by William Sidaway and Son and was last restored by Council in 1986. It has been vacant since 2007, and in 2013, Council undertook significant remedial structural works to ensure the stability of the building until an alternative use could be found.

Reviving the Boot Factory

The Boot Factory will be restored and delivered back to the community and will include an Innovation and Knowledge Hub (Hub) where we can nurture ideas to further transform Waverley into a ‘smart city’ of the future.

The Waverley Innovation & Knowledge Hub Steering Group has, and will continue, to assist in guiding the development of the Hub and its policies and practices. The Steering Group consists of Three Lawson Ward Councilors, a local community representative from the Mill Hill Bondi Junction Precinct and up to five practitioners with relevant expertise in Heritage Conservation, Adaptive Reuse, Library Futures, Maker Spaces, Futurists or Innovation Spaces.