From an email received 19 October 2020.

Hi,

I have reference to an Inn by the same name from a 1640 work by Somner indicating that the place had stood for some time prior even to then. At that date, in fact, the Inn was apparently mostly in ruins.

"An exchange relates to a Mint, or place of mintage and coynage of money; but of old, as will appeare by the Stat. anno primo H. 6 [Henry VI], cap. 4. they might not be together, but were kept apart, and a place there was sometime neighbouring to the Exchange, on the other side of the same street even there where now the Inne called the Crown or some part of it stands where our Mint was kept."

In about the 43rd year of Edward III the Exchange was divided into tenements "...tenementi vocat la Chaunge jacen' in Civitate Cant. in parochia omnium Sanctorum..."

Which I roughly translate as:

"...tenements called The Change [Exchange] cast in the City of Canterbury in the parish of All-Saints..."

The mint, then, was closed sometime prior to the 43rd year of Edward III (ie c1355). I believe that each of the establishments in your two links above are likely one and the same. The Crown Inne originally stood in the spot now occupied by the Cancer Research Institute and the Nero Cafe (44 and 45). At some time in the 1700s it moved to the other side of the walkway into the area now occupied by the Cuban (43) and where you have it now located.

The name New Crown may refer to a period of time after it had been moved across the walkway to where The Cuban now is to differentiate it from the original "Old" Crown at 44 and 45.

I had also found a reference to it (the inn) being established in 1642 but I believe this to be grossly inaccurate since it appears to have been long-established by 1640.

Best Wishes,

Tony Bergantino.