- This article is about the main Gotham City Hall located in the City Hall District. For the secondary City Hall that is located in the Upper West Side, see Gotham City Hall (Upper West Side).
Gotham City Hall is located in the City Hall District of Gotham City. As the city's chief administrative building, it is the main headquarters of the Mayor of Gotham. Apart from the office of the Mayor of Gotham City, it also houses the chambers of the Gotham City Council.
During the No Man's Land crisis, the City Hall District along with the Financial District and the southern portion of Fashion District was taken over by Oswald Cobblepot and his crime family. Gotham City Hall itself was used as a base by Cobblepot for the duration of the No Man's Land year.
History[]
During a ceremony in front of Gotham City Hall, Mayor Cobblepot showed the people of Gotham a statue of his deceased mother Gertrud Kapelput. However, the mayor's speech was then interrupted by an attack of the Red Hood gang that beheaded the statue in front of everyone. Before escaping, they stated that Gotham is not safe of their gang.[1]
When Burke became mayor of Gotham following the Tetch virus incident, he decided to use the secondary town hall in the Upper West Side as his headquarters.[2][3]
No Man's Land[]
- "After the bridges blew and the government declared Gotham off-limits, the city was up for grabs. Given over to criminals and murderers. [...] I mean, we have Penguin in City Hall, for God's sakes."
- —James Gordon reporting on the state of Gotham[src]
When the bridges fell and Gotham was declared a No Man's Land, the abandoned Gotham City Hall was taken over by the Penguin, who was planning to use it as his power base during the crisis.[4] In the following months, Cobblepot cemented his powerful position in the fallen city. With the help of accountant Arthur Penn and his army of loyal henchmen, Penguin was quickly able to take control of the whole City Hall District and Financial District, as well as the southern portion of Fashion District. As seen on the city map at the GCPD, Penguin's sector rose to be the largest of all the territories in No Man's Land by day 87.[5]
Even though Gotham City Hall was strictly secured by Cobblepot's henchmen at all time during the crisis, some of his enemies were occasionally able to break through all barriers or security measures in the sector and sneak into city hall. For example, Penguin's base was once invaded by Eduardo Dorrance and the Delta Force, who were able to capture Penguin and take him to GCPD headquarters in the Green Zone.[6]
Penguin had his henchmen raid and loot dozens of buildings all over Gotham City and had them steal everything valuable they could find in the fallen city. Penguin had a secret bunker built beneath the city hall where he hid all of the stolen treasures. The entrance was hidden behind a wall in the office room, where a secret passage led to the underground lair.[7] All of the thieves that brought the valuable objects to city hall were later murdered by Penguin, so that no one would find out that he had a whole treasure in his possession. However, the bunker was later found by jewel thief Magpie when she followed one of Penguin's thieves back to city hall.[8]
On day 391[9] into No Man's Land, the Gotham City Hall was taken over by Nyssa al Ghul and her army when she was enacting her plan to utterly destroy the city of Gotham.[10]
Post-Reunification period[]
After Nyssa and Bane were defeated during the night of day 391/392, order was finally restored in Gotham City. After the reunification with the mainland, Gotham City Hall became the official office of the mayor once again. A ceremony was held at Gotham City Hall during which James Gordon was promoted to GCPD Commissioner for his service during the crisis. Other GCPD officers like Bullock, Harper and Alvarez were also honored by new mayor Chang. Cobblepot, Edward Nygma, Barbara Kean, Lee Thompkins and Bruce Wayne were among the many attendees during the celebrations.[11]
At some point during the following ten years, Aubrey James was once again re-elected for another term as mayor of Gotham. He once met with Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Bullock at the mayor's office at city hall in order to discuss the arrival of a mysterious vigilante in Gotham.[12]
Politicians[]
Mayors[]
- Aubrey James
- Theo Galavan (formerly; deceased)
- Oswald Cobblepot (formerly)
- Edward Nygma (Mayor's Chief of Staff; formerly)
- Burke (deceased)
- Holden Pritchard (interim mayor; formerly)
- Chang (formerly)
City council[]
- Ronald Danzer (deceased)
- Ron Jenkins (deceased)
- Mathinson
- Zeller (deceased)
Residents during No Man's Land[]
- Cobblepot crime family (formerly)
- Oswald Cobblepot (formerly)
- Arthur Penn (formerly)
- Olga (formerly)
- Edward (formerly)
- Nyssa al Ghul (formerly)
- General Wade (deceased)
Appearances[]
Notes[]
- The Gotham City Hall is a recurring location in the DC Comics. It first appeared in the story "Back To the Big House" from Batman #30 (August 1945).
- For the episodes "Rise of the Villains: Strike Force" and "Mad City: Anything for You", the Bronx County Courthouse was used to depict the exterior of Gotham City Hall.[13][14]
The Two Gotham City Halls[]
The Gotham City Hall was first introduced in the first season. In the episode "Rise of the Villains: Scarification", Captain Nathaniel Barnes' map of Gotham showed that Gotham City Hall is located between the Upper West Side and Chinatown. This is also the location of the city hall shown on the maps used by the GCPD and Jeremiah Valeska in "A Dark Knight: One Bad Day".
However, it is later shown in "A Dark Knight: No Man's Land" that there are actually two separate city halls in Gotham. The one that was used by Burke as his headquarters during season 4 was completely destroyed at the beginning of the episode, leaving behind nothing but ruins. However, at the end of the episode, Penguin and his gang take over Gotham City Hall, which they would then use as their power base during season 5. Since City Hall was destroyed at the beginning of the episode, the Gotham City Hall taken over by Cobblepot can not be the same building.
In "Legend of the Dark Knight: Year Zero", Penguin's territory in Gotham is shown on Jim Gordon's map. It is located in the area surrounding the City Hall District in eastern Downtown. On the map, it also reads "Gotham City Hall" in the middle of the Penguin's territory. This shows that the main city hall built in the style of art deco is actually located in eastern Downtown. The city hall that is located in the Upper West Side must therefore be the one destroyed in the episode "A Dark Knight: No Man's Land".
Both city halls have very different exteriors from one another. For the main Gotham City Hall, the art deco style Bronx County Courthouse in New York City was used as a filming location for exterior shots in previous episodes. It looks very different from the city hall that is destroyed in "A Dark Knight: No Man's Land". Therefore, there can only be two separate city hall buildings in Gotham, the main one that appeared in most episodes, and the secondary one mainly used by Burke.
In real life, there are various examples for cities that have two separate city hall buildings. For example, Toronto has an Old City Hall that was home to the city council until 1966, as well as a New City Hall that was built to replace the old one. Both are located in Downtown Toronto. Similarly, the Upper West Side City Hall in Gotham appears to be the original city hall, with the modern art deco style Gotham City Hall in City Hall District likely being the new one.