September 2017 Wine Bar inside photos by John Ness In 2018 John Ness and Tony Panos visited the site on different occasions, both being given an opportunity to view the interior. On 22nd October 2018 Tony said: "we went to Jackson & Rye, which as you sent me details was the Old CBC Bank. You & Peter Beaumont were so right, it is really a fantastic Wine Bar, Brassiere & Restaurant. We were very lucky that we spoke to one of the Waiting Staff ( Mili Deaconu) & I told her that used to work there between 1962 & 1965. She then spoke to Manager & she took us on a tour of the Bank premises, which has now been Jackson & Rye for at least 2 years. Went all over the Restaurant on the ground floor & mezzanine, then downstairs to the actual Vault area- where at times I was one of the key holders to such vault. The kitchen is now in the basement away from the Vault. Both Mili, the Manager & Staff were most interested re the stories & history I told them about. Result they made us most welcome, so we stayed for Lunch. Had a great meal & was a “Trip Down Memory Lane." As to the other buildings across from the Bank, Peter Hocken advised: One of them is the Bank of China - this one was the old Commonweath Bank - there is above one of the doors “Bank Building”carved into the stone. “Browns” is now a Brassiere, which is in the former premises of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The Bank of China premises - on the corner of Gresham Street - were way back an annex of The Bank of England.
Opposite the old CBC building was The Commercial Bank of Australia, which is now a visa application centre for China. In between the China Visa centre and Browns used to be The Reserve Bank of Australia chambers. There is now another restaurant there called Goodman and here is their link: https://www.goodmanrestaurants.com/location/city The original Three Crowns pub was demolished many years ago in the early 1970s. When the site was rebuilt the pub became a basement pub of a modern building. That basement pub has also long gone, sometime in the late 1980s. |