Laiki Bank House, Castlereagh Street

This heritage listed building in Castlereagh Street was once the City South Telephone Exchange, built in 1922 and designed by commonwealth architect John Smith Murdoch, in the commercial palazzo style. To deal with the expanding city, a new telephone exchange was built next door many years later, with a less attractive facade. When advances in technology meant that telephone exchange equipment could be contained in a much smaller site, so the older building was vacated and sold by Telstra, the telecommunications company. The building was restored and now houses the Consulate of Greece, as well as a bank branch and headquarters of Laiki Bank (Popular Bank of Greece).