Manila City Hall

Manila City Hall is the seat of government of the City of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. It stands in the historic district of Ermita, beside Intramuros, and it is where the Mayor of Manila works and the city council meets. It was finished in 1941, just before World War II.

The neoclassical building was designed by architect Antonio Toledo. Its most famous feature, described on the globe card, is the clock tower with three faces under a gold dome, nicknamed the "Big Ben of Manila". The building was meant to be part of a national government center that the planner Daniel Burnham dreamed up in the 1900s.

From wooden hall to war survivor

The first city hall, from 1901, was built of Oregon pine. After about 31 years the floors had weakened and the old building was torn down. A new one was built in the 1930s by Antonio Toledo, after the architect Juan Arellano, whose Art Deco design had been chosen, left the project.

In February 1945 the building was heavily damaged in the Battle of Manila, but it stayed standing and was rebuilt with help from the United States Army.

What it is like

The building sits on a trapezoid-shaped lot between the old Legislative Building and the Post Office. When it was new it had a floor area of about 8,400 square meters and around 200 rooms.

The repairs after the war changed the plans a little, adding a fifth-floor attic and extra windows where shell damage had been. In 2019 the National Museum declared it an Important Cultural Property.

On the globe

The model shows the green-roofed wings around courtyards, with the gold-domed clock tower rising from the middle.