City and town halls
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other uses, see City hall (disambiguation).
- For the railway station in Sydney, Australia, see Town Hall railway station, Sydney.
- For the performance space in New York City, see The Town Hall.
A city hall or town hall is the headquarters of a city or town's administration and usually houses the city or town council, its associated departments and their employees. It is also usually the base of the city, town, borough or county mayor.
In North America, a hall is labeled a "city" or "town" hall depending on the size of the municipality it serves. City halls are usually found in larger cities and town halls in smaller urban areas.
In the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and many Commonwealth countries, "town hall" is the more common term. Among the exceptions are:
- The City of London's Guildhall, where the building's name is used.
- Brisbane, where the Brisbane City Hall is an example of an Australian local council that has a "city hall".
- Birmingham, England, where Birmingham Town Hall is a concert hall and the city's administration is the housed in the City of Birmingham Council House.
Alternatively, there are "town" halls to be found in cities such as Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Melbourne and Sydney.
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[edit] Language
"City hall" can be used by metonymy for "municipal government" or for government in general, as in the idiom "You can't fight city hall". "Town hall" tends to have less formal connotations (cf. Town meeting).
[edit] Gallery of city and town halls around the world
(in alphabetical order)
As symbols of local government, many city and town halls have distinctive architecture.
[edit] External links
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[edit] See Also
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