In 1912, Sir James Joynton Smith, then owner of The Carrington Hotel, decided that a bank was required on the premises. The building opened as a branch of the City Bank of Sydney in June 1912.
The building remained a bank until the 1930s when it became the Carrington Saloon Bar. The bar closed in 1986 and reopened after renovation in 1992.
The Old City Bank Brasserie was inducted into the Australian Hotels Hall of Fame in 2010.