Frederick Beach’s professional management helped maintain the reputation of the Café Français and ensure its on-going success. Another important factor in the establishment’s favour was its convenient location, on the city’s main thoroughfare, surrounded by commercial premises and banks. The location of the Café Français assumed even greater significance once the plans for the bridge across the harbour and the underground rail system in the city were mooted.
In 1914 the Café Français premises and the adjoining two buildings at 289 and 295 George Street (a hairdressing salon and a furrier respectively) were reported as having been sold privately for £45, 000 (Evening News, 26 June 1914, p. 7). At the time there was speculation that the purchase had been made on behalf of the state government (Sunday Times, 28 June 1914, p. 4). By the end of 1915 it was common knowledge that the buildings had been secured by the government as the site of the George Street entrance to the yet-to-be-built underground railway station at Wynyard (Construction and Local Government Journal, 24 December 1915, p. 6).
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Café Français, George Street ,Sydney, 17/9/1916, Government Printing Office, at State Library of New South Wales. |
This transaction attracted a deal of public interest when it was revealed that in fact the government had paid £55,000. The Mirror of Australia were able to show that the transaction had been completed in a somewhat roundabout and secretive manner. Essentially the purchase had been made through a proxy/nominee and the government had subsequently paid £10,000 more than if they had purchased the property on the open market or waited until the City Railway Act had been passed, which would have conferred the power to resume properties as required. While journalists may have smelt a rat it isn’t clear that there was any rat to smell albeit the transaction was unusual, the real purchaser was not disclosed to the original vendor and who pocketed the final proceeds of the sale is not clear.
In August 1914 the trustees of the will of the late Lewis Wolfe Cohen (who was the purchaser of the property in 1882?) sold to an Albert Arthur Armstrong for £45,000. In May 1915 Armstrong agreed to sell to William Coleridge Paterson Hough, a medical practitioner. On 30 November a deed of conveyance was signed by Armstrong, Hough, and the Honourable W. J. H. Cann, Minister for Public Works. Hough entered into the contract as “agent for the construction authority” and requested the vendor (Armstrong) to convey the land to the construction authority, who paid the £55,000 to the mysterious Albert Arthur Armstrong (Mirror of Australia, 29 April 1916, p. 3).
Was Armstrong a person who would normally be in a position to pay £45,000 and what did he know when he entered into the original contract in 1914? Why was it necessary for the government to engage an intermediary in the purchase from Armstrong? (Mirror of Australia, 6 May 1916, p. 3). These were questions worth asking, but the official line was that there was nothing to see here. The transactions had been carried out on behalf of the government by the estate agents Richardson and Wrench. It was Richardson and Wrench who had suggested the real purchaser should not be disclosed and it was Richardson and Wrench who provided the cheque for the deposit money via the "reputable nominee". It was also on their advice that the transaction proceeded when it did since, had the purchase been delayed till the end of the year (ie. held over until the government was entitled to resume), the expiring leases would undoubtedly have been renewed and not only would the owners have claimed the full amount paid (£55,000) or more, but large sums could have been claimed, and would be legally sustainable, for loss of trade by the tenants (Daily Telegraph, 1 May 1916, p. 4; 2 May 1916, p. 4).
The first stage of the underground railway, from St James station to Central, was opened in December 1926, by which time work had commenced on the section including Town Hall and Wynyard Stations. In the meantime, business continued as usual at the Café Français.
After Frederick Beach’s retirement the business was taken on by Andrew Black, a well-known singer, and previously the licensee of Pfahlert’s Hotel. Black undertook some alterations and then died unexpectedly (SMH, 13 December 1918; Construction and Local Government Journal, 13 January 1919, p. 3; SMH, 16 September 1920, p. 8). His widow, Ellen, carried on the business until 1924, no doubt calling on her experience at Pfahlert’s (her first husband, Mr. Lichtscheindel [sic], had been the owner of Pfahlert’s).
The next licensee was Alfred Thompson. A company calling itself Café Français Limited had been formed with subscribers Thompson, Ruth Thompson, C. A. Clarke, E. J. Whitehead, C. W. Walsh A. U. Gubbins and J. W. Armstrong who now ran both the business in Sydney and the Royal Hotel in Taree. Nothing more is known about these individuals. A report in Smith’s Weekly has this company going into liquidation in June 1928 and the business then being carried on by trustees until October 1928 (Smith’s Weekly, 21 September 1929, p. 1). A hurried sale of the furniture, fittings, etc. of the Café Français, part of the assigned estate of A. E. Thompson, was advertised in October 1828 (SMH, 9 October 1928, p. 17). The Railway Commissioners then took possession of the premises, and the business was closed for 10 days. When the Café Français reopened, Mr Joseph S. Levy was the manager and licensee for a new syndicate who intended to build "a mammoth hotel" on the site (Sunday Times, 7 October 1928, p. 2).
The ins and outs of this transaction are not easy to decipher relying only on newspaper reports but, as with the transactions ten years earlier, there is a whiff of collusion in the air. The scheme for this monster hotel had been hatching since March 1927 when Levy, who was well-experienced having managed Usher’s Hotel and the Carlton Hotel in Sydney and the Grand Hotel in Wellington, New Zealand, travelled to the United States and England to study the latest developments in hotel design. The subsequent grand plan was for an enormous building with a frontage of 148 feet (45 metres) to George Street, rising 150 feet (46 metres) above Wynyard station and bridging Wynyard Lane, thus giving access to Carrington Street, with shopping arcades, bar entrances, lounges, smoking rooms, and all the other accoutrements of a palatial hotel. The estimated cost was £750,000. Levy was pleased to announce that the syndicate had a 60-year lease on what would be the Plaza Hotel (Sunday Times, 7 October 1928, p. 2). It was also made clear that Joseph Reuben Gardiner, one time boot manufacturer and recently involved in a well-publicised divorce case, was a principal of the syndicate.
Just when the building housing the Café Français was pulled down is not entirely clear, but the best indication is early 1929 (Building, vol. 44 no. 260, 12 April 1929, p. 82). In September 1929 Smith’s Weekly reported on the "George Street excavation scandal" claiming that the Railway Department were carrying out work to the tune of £100,00 all for the benefit of a "private syndicate’" This was just the beginning of a long and complicated saga concerning the building of the new hotel and the terms of the associated lease which held up construction for years (21 September, p. 1).
Wynyard station was opened in 1932, to coincide with the opening of the Harbour Bridge. There was as yet no progress on the hotel, but the terms of the project were clearer. Th Sun newspaper explained that having excavated the site the Railway Department would "erect the building to the height of one floor above the level of George Street", the hotel syndicate would then pay the government interest on their expenditure to date and annual rent for their 60-year lease. At the end of the lease, the entire building, including any portion erected by the syndicate, would become the property of the Railway Department. The conditions further stipulated that work should commence immediately and the syndicate were required to spend £150,000 on their part of the construction (The Sun, 23 December 1932, p. 9). Why building had not commenced was not explained although the Sydney Morning Herald claimed the hold up was the refusal of the government to finance their part of the deal (10 June 1932, p. 13).
In December 1933 Joseph Reuben Gardiner was elected as a member of the NSW Legislative Council, an appointment which may have given him easy access to the right authorities if not any direct involvement in the government’s machinations over the future of the hotel project. In the meantime, a temporary Café Français had been erected, perched precariously on columns, clinging to one corner of the excavation site. Again, the exact date is not clear but it is likely that that this temporary accommodation was in place by early 1930.* This interim structure did not meet the requirements of the Liquor Act because it did not provide any bedrooms but in June 1934 the Licensing Board and the Railway Commissioners reached agreement with the syndicate, who were assured that work on the hotel could commence in twelve months once the foundations had been completed (SMH, 28 June 1934, p. 9).
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Both these photographs, Excavations and Plaza Hotel Temporary Bar and Peapes' Menswear Store, are from the Sam Hood Collection at the State Library of New South Wales, dated 29 January 1935.  This image is also from the Sam Hood Collection, Part II, Box 038, Hotel Cafe Francais (291 George Street) of J. Levy and excavation site for Wynyard House and the Railway Station Arcade, 1935, State Library of New South Wales. |
Joe Gardiner, no longer a member of the Legislative Council, still had grand plans. Reportedly "anxious that the old name and its associations should be retained in his new and luxurious establishment", a large part of the lower mezzanine was occupied by a "high class café known as Café Français Palm Court’" The new Café Français had capacity for 500 people and promised cookery and service of the highest standard. It was still anticipated that the finished hotel would occupy five further floors below the lower mezzanine level, while there would be another 11 floors above George Street providing 550 bedrooms.
How long a vestige of the Café Français was maintained after this date is hard to gauge. No further mention is made of its function as a restaurant or whether the name survived for long. Gardiner’s interest lay elsewhere. He lined the ramp down to the station from George Street with bars and bottle shops, which raised the ire of the Sydney Diocesan Synod and led the Bulletin to describe the Plaza Hotel as "a congeries of cafes, bars and bottle joints which forms … the most hideous feature of the hideous entrance to Wynyard Station" (Smith’s Weekly 12 September 1936, p. 3; The Labor Daily, 19 August 1938, p. 10; Bulletin, 10 August 1938, p. 13). Gardiner’s plans for the hotel continued to flounder while he weathered all manner of disputes - over building regulations, the licensing laws, underpayment of wages and the final terms of the lease with the Railway Commissioners which had not yet been signed, along the way earning himself an unenviable reputation for breaking the rules (SMH, 28 July 1938, p. 17; The Sun, 18 March 1939, p. 12).
Smith’s Weekly took up the story:
Completion of the Plaza Hotel, and a long-delayed clean-up of the Wynyard Station eyesore, are expected to result from negotiations now going on between the Minister for Transport (Mr. Bruxner) and the proprietors of the hotel. Ever since the station became a vital terminus eight years back, its ugly incompleteness has been a Sydney scandal.
In reply to questions from this newspaper, [the Railway Commissioner, Mr. Hartigan] said not long ago that the delay in completion of Wynyard was a matter concerning only the lessees. The terms of the contract between the Railway Department and the Plaza Hotel proprietors were not the public’s business.
With the approach of the time for the final drafting of the 60-year lease, as per the original contract, the matter had been given to the Minister for Transport to resolve (Smith’s Weekly, 25 February 1939, p. 2). Gardiner now admitted that his plans were much reduced, and the hotel was only likely to be a seven-storey structure.
In June 1939 the Licensing Court again moved to refuse the renewal of the hotel’s liquor license on the grounds that the licensee failed to provide "the proper accommodation of at least four bedrooms and two sitting rooms constantly ready for public use, as required by the Liquor Act" (SMH, 6 June 1939, p. 60). Given all the back and forth there had been over the lease, including new clauses which prevented entrances to the bars from the ramps and passageways and the display of liquor advertisements within the station, as well as changes to the plans which had held up any further construction, the case was held over until the conditions could be finally agreed and the upper floors, which were to contain the guest rooms, could be built. In the event the license was refused but the hotel was allowed to continue trading pending an appeal (The Sun, 26 June 1939, p. 3).
Negotiations dragged on. The lease was finally signed in January 1941, but Joseph Reuben Gardiner died before it could be executed. A new agreement was then negotiated with his executors stipulating that at least four bedrooms would be provided on the first floor within seven months to ensure the granting of a liquor license (The Sun, 5 February 1941, p. 9; Daily Mirror, 13 June 1941, p. 11; The Sun, 30 June 1941, p. 5). The Plaza Hotel then came into the hands of a Melbourne company, Avrom/Avron Investments Pty. Ltd who purchased the assets of Joe Gardiner’s estate (SMH, 1 August 1941, p. 8).**
In September 1942 the Bulletin noted that "the clutter of scaffolding" surrounding the Plaza Hotel had finally been removed, "but for reasons known best to the lessee and the N.S.W. Railways Dept." the result was not as intended and the hotel had "reached completion at its second storey" with the acres of potential floor space over Wynyard station, originally intended to be revenue-earning, remaining empty air. The writer speculated on the possibility that someday the public might be told what went wrong "not since 1939, but in the seven years before that" (The Bulletin, 2 September 1942, p. 10), although the questions surrounding the future of the site dated back to 1914.
Satisfying the requirements of the Licensing Board and the Railway Commissioners proved to be an insurmountable impasse. Despite "extensive remodelling" in 1948, by 1950 the Plaza still only had 12 bedrooms, although it could boast 13 bars and 5 bottle departments along the ramp from George Street, nicknamed "Bottle Alley" (Tribune, 7 January 1948, p. 3; Construction, 1 September 1948, p. 5; Truth, 16 July 1950, p. 48).
Giving evidence to the Royal Commission on Liquor Laws in NSW in 1952 the then licensee and manager, John Bonaventure Limerick, claimed that the Plaza paid the biggest license fee in the state and was also the biggest distributor of alcohol in the state but still only had 8 bedrooms available to the public (Daily Mirror, 1 April 1952, p. 3; 12 May 1952, p. 2). The issue came to a head the following year. The Licensing Court finally order the lessee to build 100 bedrooms, and four toilet blocks. An additional bar at the Carrington Street entrance had been approved earlier. The plans for the bedrooms must be lodged by 31 March 1954 (requiring approval by by the Railways Department) and building work completed within 12 months (Daily Telegraph, 16 August 1953, p. 10; Daily Mirror, 9 November 1953, p. 9; SMH, 10 November 1953, p. 11). The license was once again cancelled in 1956, effective June 21, pending an appeal, because work had not commenced (Canberra Times, 30 May 1956, p. 7).
It appears however that the hotel continued to trade.
For a quarter of a century the George Street entrance to Sydney’s Wynyard station has been flanked with a series of bars and bottle-departments bearing the name Plaza Hotel. In the shadowy blue-prints of this institution, produced from time to time over the years when the question of renewal of liquor-licence came before the court, hovered a lofty edifice of from 6 to 10 or more stories designed to convert the string of saloons into a first-class residential hotel … During that long period the lease issued by the NSW Department of Railways has often seemed about to be cancelled, just as the liquor-licence has often seemed about to be withdrawn. Both however have survived … until recently (Bulletin, 9 March 1960, p. 6. “Beer castle in the air”).
At a hearing in December 1959 the Licensing Court gave the current lessees until July of 1960 to add 74 bedrooms. In February 1960 the lease changed hands again and it was announced that the new lessees would go ahead with the building of a modern hotel. The Bulletin was skeptical, adding "suspicion seems to hang heavily over Wynyard" and querying why the transfer of the lease had been granted without calling for tenders (9 March 1960, p. 6).
Newspaper clippings in the City of Sydney Archives confirm that Wynyard Plaza Pty Ltd were to be granted a 99-year lease on the Plaza Hotel site and that work would commence in May 1960. Photographs in the State Archives collection indicate that construction did proceed to a point, although a note in the Tribune in February 1961 claims the new project had run out of money and was "doomed to be temporary" (22 February 1961, p. 3). Not long after this the whole site was redeveloped with construction of the Menzies Hotel facing Carrington Street and Wynyard House fronting George Street.
There was no suggestion that the new hotel would house a Café Français, but the Menzies Hotel, officially opened on 17 October 1963, 110 years after Cheval established the original Café Français, and did go on to gain a reputation for luxurious accommodation and excellent food.
*Plans for premises to be used as a temporary bar dated September at Museums of History NSW, State Archives, NRS-9590-4-[Plan 72265]-Plan 72265. Argus (Melb.), 29 June 1934, p. 8 "for years it has been a skeleton having little more than a bar at the side of the deep excavation of Wynyard Station."
** The original Plaza Hotel syndicate comprised A. Abrahams (Melbourne), E. Abrahams (Melbourne), JR Gardiner MLC, JR Kerr (financier), CH Gardiner, EF Gardiner, W. Berkman (financier) and Joseph Levy (SMH, 28 June 1934, p. 9). Details of Avron/Avrom Investments are sketchy but in the 1950s the chairman was Lewis/Louis Hyams snr and the managing director Philip Hyams who were related to Alfred Abrahams through marriage – Philip Hyams was Alfred Abraham’s nephew.