Originally designed by architects Sheerin & Hennessy and Twentyman & Askew, the hotel was remodelled and extended in 1929 by Henry Budden.

"[1] In 1885, the Bakewell Brothers firm had purchased for £6,500 a vacant site bounded by Bent, Phillip, and Young Streets, on the former Government House estate, in the centre of Sydney for the purpose of erecting a "Palace Hotel", to fulfil this need.

The first steps towards the establishment of a large hotel of the first-class, and on a scale of great magnificence, have already been taken and, in all probability, the efforts of the promoters will, ere long, bear good fruit.

[7] By mid-1888, designs by the Sydney-based architectural firm of Sheerin & Hennessy and the Melbourne-based Twentyman & Askew were accepted by the company for a 300-room hotel.

[11] When an objection was raised that the name change implied that "it would give a stranger the idea that intoxicating liquors were sold within it", the board chairman, William McLean, responded: "for many years temperance hotels had a very bad name, and for anyone to say he was going into a temperance hotel was about equal to saying he was going into a third class boarding house.

"[32] With capacity limits proving to be an inhibitor of future growth, the company decided to invest some of the profits into further expansion and renovation, commissioning over £155,000 worth of works to become what they called the "largest hotel in Australia".

[47][48] In June 1935, Budden also designed the addition of an Art Deco style awning over the entrance on the corner of Bent and Young Streets.

[54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64] The most prominent of these being within the space of several weeks in March 1954, when three people died by falling in separate incidents, including former politician Hugh Wragge.

[87][88][89][90] The Metropole Tavern opened for business on 5 December 1974, and became known as a live music venue, seeing performances from such artists as INXS, The Angels, and The Saints.

[91][92][93][94][95] The Metropole Tavern closed for business in late 1980, and the liquor license was transferred to a new bar opening in the McNamara Centre in Parramatta on 14 August 1981.