Mansion House, London the columned "Egyptian Hall", was so named because Dance used an arrangement of columns deemed to be "Egyptian" by Vitruvius. No Egyptian motifs were employed. It has twenty niches for sculpture. There was originally an open courtyard, later occupied by a saloon. The residence used to have its own court of law, since the Lord Mayor is the chief magistrate of the City while in office. There were eleven holding cells (ten for men and one, nicknamed "the birdcage", for women). A famous prisoner here was the early 20th-century suffragette women's rights campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst. Mansion House is home to
Mansion House, Newport Mansion House, Newport The Mansion House was the official residence of the Mayor of Newport, South Wales until 2009. In addition to being the Mayor's official residence, it also offered hospitality and accommodation to official visitors to the city from overseas. In 2010 plans were approved to convert the Mansion House for use as a Register office and it duly opened in July 2011 after a major refurbishment. The present grounds of the Mansion House were bought in four lots by John Liscombe, Leather Merchant and Sadler of Commercial Street, Newport, between 1886 and 1889. He built the House in