Glasgow City Chambers

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Glasgow City Chambers

The City Chambers (built 1882-90, architect William Young) of Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and List of largest United Kingdom settlements by population in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's Scottish Lowlands....
, Scotland

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
, are the headquarters of Glasgow City Council, the largest local authority in Scotland, and were completed in 1889.

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Glasgow City Chamers Full Marble Staircase

The City Chambers (built 1882-90, architect William Young) of Glasgow

Glasgow

Scotland

George Square

George Square is the central square in the Scotland city of Glasgow. Named after King George III, George Square was laid out in 1781, part of the nascent innovative Georgian central grid plan that initially spanned from Stockwell Street east to Buchanan Street, which reflected the growing rational influence of the Scottish Enlightenment,...
, Queen Victoria

Victoria of the United Kingdom

Victoria was from 20 June 1837 the Queen regnant of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and from 1 May 1876 the first Empress of India of the British Raj until her death....
performed the inauguration ceremony in August 1888, and the first Council

City council

A city council is a form of local government, usually covering a city or other urban area, such as a town. The system of government has roots back at least to the Roman Empire....
meeting was held in October 1889. The buildings are an eminent example of Victorian

Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture can refer to one of a number of architectural styles predominantly employed during the Victorian era. As with the latter, the period of building that it covers may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 ? 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom after whom it is named....
civic architecture.

The entrance hall of the Chambers displays a mosaic of the city's coat of arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms, more properly called an armorial achievement, armorial bearings or often just arms for short, in European tradition, is a design belonging to a particular person and used by them in a wide variety of ways....
on the floor. The arms reflect legends about Glasgow's patron saint

Patron saint

A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, or person. Patron saints, because they have already transcended to the metaphysical, are able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges....
, Saint Mungo

Saint Mungo

Saint Mungo is the commonly used name for Saint Kentigern . He was the late 6th century wikt:apostle of the Brythonic Kingdom of Strathclyde in modern Scotland, and patron saint and founder of the city of Glasgow....
, and include four emblems - the bird, tree, bell, and fish - as remembered in the following verse:

Here's the Bird that never flew

Here's the Tree that never grew

Here's the Bell that never rang

Here's the Fish that never swam

A tapestry hanging in the hall is intended to represent Glasgow's past and present, and from a distance appears almost Japanese in style.

Pillars of marble

Marble

Marble is a nonfoliated metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite . It is extensively used for Marble sculpture, as a architecture material, and in many other applications....
and granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of Intrusion , felsic, igneous rock rock . Granite has a medium to coarse texture, occasionally with some individual crystals larger than the groundmass forming a rock known as Porphyry ....
give way to staircases of marble, freestone

Freestone

A freestone is a Rock used in masonry for Molding , tracery and other replication work required to be worked with the chisel. The freestone must be fine-grained, uniform and soft enough to be cut easily without shattering or splitting....
, and alabaster

Alabaster

Alabaster is a name applied to varieties of two distinct minerals: gypsum and calcite . The former is the alabaster of the present day; the latter is generally the alabaster of the ancients....
, and a ceiling decorated in gold is topped by a stained glass

Stained glass

For the Blackford Oakes novel, see Stained Glass The term stained glass can refer to the material of coloured glass or the craft of working with it....
dome.

The Councillor

Councillor

A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council. Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman....
's Corridor, containing councillors' mailboxes and decorated in Italian faience

Faience

Faience or fa?ence is the conventional name in English language for fine tin-glazed pottery on a delicate pale buff body. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an stannous oxide to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major advance in the history of pottery....
, leads to the Committee Rooms, where formal business committees meet, and an impressive library.

From the corridor one passes through into the Council Chamber. This is where the Council meets formally, and is one of the most impressive rooms in the City Chambers. There are seats for each of the 79 councillors, all facing the Lord Provost

Lord Provost

A Lord Provost is the figurative and ceremonial head of one of the principal cities in Scotland. Four cities, City of Aberdeen, City of Dundee, City of Edinburgh and City of Glasgow, have the right to appoint a Lord Provost instead of a provost ....
(the Scottish equivalent of the lord mayor found in London and other cities), his Depute, and the Chief Executive, who are seated behind the mace

Ceremonial mace

The ceremonial mace is a highly ornamented staff of metal and wood, carried before a Head of state or other high official in civic ceremonies by a mace-bearer, intended to represent the official's authority....
. A public gallery looks down on the proceedings, and a small press gallery is located at the side.

The Lord Provost's main office is decorated in the same Venetian

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy, the capital city of the Italian regions Veneto, a population of 271,251 . Together with Padua, Italy, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area ....
style as the rest of the building. Famous visitors, including the British Royal family

British Royal Family

The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in his or her Commonwealth realm#The Crown in the Commonwealth realmss, thus sometimes at variance with official national terms for the family....
have signed the visitor book here.

The municipal mace is kept in an ante-room leading to the Lord Provost's office. Part of the ritual of the Council's proceedings is that the mace is carried by the Council Officer when leading the Lord Provost into the Council Chamber to chair full council meetings. The mace is made from gold-plated silver

Silver

Silver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal....
, and was presented to the council in 1912.

Next to the Council Chamber, you come across three rooms used for civic functions and large meetings: the Satinwood

Satinwood

Satinwood can mean the following:*A name for a wood that can be polished to a high gloss, in particular two woods, from the flowering plant family Rutaceae:...
Salon, Octagonal Room, and Mahogany

Mahogany

The name mahogany is used when referring to numerous varieties of dark-colored wood, originally the wood of the species Swietenia mahagoni, known as West Indian or Cuban mahogany....
Salon. These rooms are decorated in fine woods as their names imply, and also house a selection of fine paintings.

The grandest room in the Chambers is the Banqueting Hall. Its magnificence has impressed heads of state, and it has witnessed many different types of events, from formal civil ones to record launches, fashion shows, children's Christmas parties and private functions. Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was the first President of South Africa of South Africa to be elected in a universal suffrage democratic election, serving in the office from 1994?99....
received his Freedom of the City

Freedom of the City

Freedom of the City is an honour bestowed by some municipalities in Australia, Canada, Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe to esteemed members of its community or to organisations that have given the community heroic service; the term applies to two separate honors, one civilian and one military...
here in 1993.

The hall is 33.5m long by 14.6m wide and 15.8m high. The carpet comes in three sections which are rotated regularly to prevent wear. The carpet design reflects the ornate pattern of the roof. Huge murals decorate the walls, depicting the granting of the city's charter, its history and culture, and the four main Scottish rivers. The hall's electric chandeliers, or "electrolier

Electrolier

Electrolier was the name for a fixture, usually pendent from the ceiling, for holding electric Lamp s. The word is analogous to chandelier, from which it was formed....
s", were designed in 1885.

The daily tours of the Chambers conclude with the Upper Gallery on the third floor, which lets one see the detail on the beautiful dome visible from the other floors, as well as portraits of former Lord Provosts.

The City Chambers of Glasgow, with its architectural features and position as a seat of local government

Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
ensure its appeal to locals and other Scots.

The Chambers were used as part of the location for "The House of Mirth

The House of Mirth

The House of Mirth , by Edith Wharton, is a novel about New York socialite Lily Bart attempting to secure a husband and a place in rich society....
" an adaptation of the novel by Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton was an United States novelist, short story writer and designer....
by Terence Davies

Terence Davies

Terence Davies is an England screenwriter - film director, sometime novelist and actor. As a filmmaker, Davies is noted for his recurring themes of emotional endurance, the influence of memory on everyday life and the potentially crippling effects of dogmatic religiosity on the emotional life of individuals and societies....
starring Gillian Anderson

Gillian Anderson

Gillian Leigh Anderson is an United States actress, best known for her roles as FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the American television series The X-Files, Moro in Princess Mononoke and Lady Dedlock in the BBC TV series Bleak House ....
and Dan Aykroyd

Dan Aykroyd

Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, Order of Canada is an Academy Awards-nominated and Emmy Award-winning Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist....
.