The City Chambers or Municipal Buildings in Glasgow, has functioned as the headquarters of Glasgow City Council since 1996, of preceding forms of municipal government in the city since 1889, located on the eastern side of the city's George Square. An eminent example of Victorian civic architecture, the building was constructed between 1882 and 1888 to a competition winning design by Scottish architect William Young. A native of Paisley. Inaugurated in August 1888 by Queen Victoria, the first council meeting was held within the chambers in October 1889; the building had an area of 5,016 m2. In 1923, an extension to the east side of the building in John Street was opened and in 1984 Exchange House in George Street was completed, increasing the size of the City Chambers complex to some 14,000 m2; the need for a new city chambers had been apparent since the 18th century, with the old Tolbooth at Glasgow Cross becoming insufficient for the purposes of civic government in a growing town with greater political responsibilities.

In 1814, the Tolbooth was sold – with the exception of the steeple, which still remains – and the council chambers moved to Jail Square in the Saltmarket, near Glasgow Green. Subsequent moves were made to Ingram Street. In the early 1880s, City Architect John Carrick was asked to identify a suitable site for a purpose built City Council Chambers. Carrick identified the east side of George Square, bought; the new City Chambers housed Glasgow Town Council from 1888 to 1895, when that body was replaced by Glasgow Corporation. It remained the Corporation's headquarters until it was replaced by Glasgow District Council under the wider Strathclyde Regional Council in May 1975; the City Chambers has been the headquarters of Glasgow City Council since April 1996, when it replaced the District Council with the abolition of the Strathclyde Region. The building is in the Beaux arts style, an interpretation of Renaissance Classicism incorporating Italianate styles with a vast range of ornate decoration, used to express the wealth and industrial export-led economic prosperity of the Second City of the Empire.

The exterior sculpture, by James Alexander Ewing, included the central Jubilee Pediment as its centrepiece. Although intended to feature a figure symbolising Glasgow'with the Clyde at her feet sending her manufactures to all the world', the Pediment was redesigned to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, it depicts Victoria enthroned, surrounded by emblematic figures of Scotland, England and Wales, alongside the colonies of the British Empire. Ewing designed the apex sculptures of Truth and Honour, the statues of The Four Seasons on the Chamber's tower; the central apex figure of Truth is popularly known as Glasgow's Statue of Liberty, because of its close resemblance to the posed, but much larger, statue in New York harbour. The entrance hall of the Chambers displays a mosaic of the city's coat of arms on the floor; the arms reflect legends about Glasgow's patron saint, Saint Mungo, include four emblems – the bird, tree 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 swamAn abstract tapestry hanging in the hall is intended to represent Glasgow's past and present.

Pillars of marble and granite give way to staircases of Carrara marble and alabaster, a ceiling decorated in gold leaf is topped by a stained glass dome. The Councillor's Corridor, containing councillors' mailboxes and decorated in Italian faience, leads to the Committee Rooms, where formal business committees meet, a library; the corridor leads into the Council Chamber. This is. There are seats for each of the 85 councillors, situated in a Hemicycle, all facing the Lord Provost, their Depute, the chief executive, who are seated behind the mace. A public gallery looks down on the proceedings, a small press gallery is located at the side; the Lord Provost's main office is decorated in the same Venetian style as the rest of the building. Famous visitors, including the British Royal 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, was presented to the council in 1912. Adjacent to the Council Chamber, there are three rooms used for civic functions and large meetings: the Satinwood Salon, Octagonal Room, the Mahogany Salon; these rooms are decorated in woods as their names imply, house a selection of paintings. The banquet hall 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 received his Freedom of the City here in 1993; the hall is 33.5 m long by 14.6 m 15.8 m high. The carpet comes in three sections which are rotated to prevent wear; the carpet design reflects the ornate pattern of the roof. Huge Glasgow School murals decorate the walls, depicting the granting of the city's charter, its history and culture, the four main Scottish rivers; the hall's electric chandeliers, or "electroliers", were designed in 1885. The daily tours of the Chambers conclude on the Upper Gallery on the third floor, which lets one see the detail on the dome visible from the other floors, as well as p

Henry Anton was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. He served as the Acting Administrator of the Gambia from September 1870 to August 1871. Anton was an officer with the 1st West India Regiment, he joined at the rank of Ensign in 1842, was promoted to Lieutenant in 1843. He was promoted to Captain in 1854, by 1856 was commanding troops in Port Royal, Jamaica. Anton was an officer involved in the Baddibu War of 1860–1861, against the Kingdom of Baddibu, a native kingdom of the Gambia, he was subsequently promoted to Major, commanded detachments of the regiment during the Second Ashanti War in 1863. Anton was commanded troops in Jamaica in 1865 during the Morant Bay rebellion. In August 1866, Anton commanded four companies that left Jamaica and went back to the west coast of Africa, he was placed in charge of the West India Regiment soldiers in The Gambia. On 8 June 1867, Anton was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, he was appointed as Acting Administrator of the Gambia on 12 September 1870, succeeding Major Alexander Bravo.

During his brief tenure, a third petition of Gambians against cession to France was submitted to London, a census of the colony was conducted, the publication of The Bathurst Times, the first Gambian newspaper, began. In May, Thomas F. Callaghan was appointed as substantive administrator, in August Anton died on his return journey to England of dysentery. There is a memorial to him at Church of All Saints in Haugham, Lincolnshire

Torrinha is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population is 9,846 in an area of 315 km²; the elevation is 802 m. The settlements where today the municipality of Torrinha is located have been shaped by colonization. In the 17th and 18th centuries this portion of the Sao Paulo area was cleared by tropeiros and travellers who landed in search of wealth. With the need for supplies and repairs, fledgling businesses emerged, enabling the establishment of populated areas; this process of occupation intensified with the donation of Sesmarias, which outlined the major farms and future urban areas. The Land Law of 1850 encouraged small farmers from nearby regions to establish themselves in the small village; some families have lived in Torrinha since 1850. Some of these pioneering family names include: Fonseca Costa, Dias, Ferraz, Ribeiro del Prado, Dias Ramos, Franco de Moraes, Barros, Milk, Paiva, Pinto, Melchert and Bueno. Jose Antunes de Oliveira is considered the founder of Torrinha, who donated to the Bishopric of Sao Paulo a small area where a chapel was built in honor of San Jose, considered the patron saint of the city.

This was nineteen years before the Republic. In 1880, documents record the arrival of Jerome Martins Coelho, grandson of Lord of Cocais, coming from the edge of Mata, Minas Gerais, he acquired large amounts of land that reached the localities of Santa Maria da Serra, Torrinha and Two Streams. He settled for a long time in lands where today is the Plant of the Three Falls, built on his farm one of the first Presbyterian Churches of the State. During this period the population grew steadily. With the arrival in 1886 of Bento Lacerda, the son of the Baron de Araras, Benedict Lacerda Guimaraes and Dona Manuela Franco, the little village gains momentum. Bento Lacerda had just returned home from Germany, where he had studied at the Polytechnic University of Hannover, specializing in chemistry and mining, he come and work on the land purchased by the Baron. The creation of the District Police in 1892 and District of Peace in 1896 is attributed to him; the economic development of this region increased around the 19th century with the introduction of sugar plantations.

Torrinha was close to the sugar farming areas of Piracicaba and San Carlos. Sugarcane production spurred the settlement. However, local conditions proved the area turned to coffee growing; the coffee culture and its development is associated with the construction of the railway. The station of Santa Maria Torrinha, was inaugurated on September 7, 1886, by Paulista de Estradas de Ferrounder; the station was a major impetus in the development of the city that needed a means of shipping its main agricultural product, coffee. It provided easier access for immigration and travel. Large mountainous areas consisting of basalt and sandstone lie within the perimeter of Torrinha, along with 34 other canyons; the potential for tourism associated with this geological feature is indisputable, with walls up to 100 feet tall, beautiful waterfalls, caves of sandstone and basalt. A gallery forest and well-preserved primary hillsides can be found in narrow valleys still unexplored. Torrinha is part of the western Sao Paulo plateau, which includes the geotectonic unit called Paraná Basin, where accumulation of thick sedimentary masses and basaltic volcanic eruptions occurred in the Tertiary period.

This caused underground erosive processes. The municipality has about 5% of its original native vegetation preserved. Of this total all is composed of vegetation on slopes. Savannah and broad-leaved tropical forest species still exist in small isolated areas, although they have been completely decimated due to agriculture and stock breeding; the presence of numerous rock walls and slopes that sprang from the "cuestas" an "embarrassment" for the settlers from the beginning of the 20th century, preserved this natural and important sanctuary treasure for biodiversity in the state of Sao Paulo