Leeds Town Hall has been used as a model for civic buildings across Britain and the British Empire, being one of the largest and earliest. In particular, Bolton Town Hall in Greater Manchester (1873) and Portsmouth Guildhall in Hampshire (1890), both works by the Leeds architect and Brodrick student William Hill (1827–1889), take many of their design cues from Leeds Town Hall. Another significant appropriation of its form – the square plan with a neoclassical design and tower – is Parliament House, Melbourne (1856), as are other colonial examples such as Parliament House, Adelaide (1880s), and in South Africa, Cape Town City Hall (1893) and Durban City Hall (1885). Additionally, many Americans reportedly travelled to Leeds especially to see the Town Hall after its opening, which some venerated as highly as medieval cathedrals. The composition of a building with end pavilions and a dominating central tower was adopted for example at Philadelphia City Hall (John McArthur Jr., 1871–1901), which has struck architectural historians as the ultimate expansion of Brodrick's idea of a domed tower, crowned with a great statue of William Penn, while the first design for the New York State Capitol followed a similar layout and a tower which featured a close resemblance to Leeds Town Hall's.