Lancaster City Council holds paintings at Lancaster Town Hall, Morecambe Town Hall and the Ashton Memorial in Williamson Park. These are in addition to its collections housed at Lancaster City Museums. Most of the works in the Town Hall are portraits of local politicians, industrialists and other well-known public figures. They include a portrait of the donor's father; James Williamson, Senior (Alderman Williamson) – founder of the family business – painted by an unknown artist after a formal cabinet photograph (probably posthumously). Four miles away, overlooking the sea stands Morecambe Town Hall. This Grade II listed building was opened in June 1931. The paintings housed there reflect the distinctiveness of Morecambe as a seaside town and Heysham as a harbour town. Works include ''Brier' Coming into Harbour' by local artist Arthur Knowles and 'Coastal Scene' by the nineteenth-century artist Luke Gorst. Gorst is the only artist known to have painted a portrait of James Williamson/Lord Ashton in the sitter’s lifetime. The 1890 portrait bust is held within the City Museum collections and can only be described as not unduly flattering. Perhaps this is why the local industrialist and philanthropist shunned both photography and formal portraiture! The Ashton Memorial is perched on the highest point of Williamson Park. Its distinctive dome is visible throughout the city and for all travelling north or south, past the city. It was commissioned by Lord Ashton in memory of members of his close family (his two wives and his daughter) and was completed in 1909. Described by Sir Nikolas Pevsner as 'the grandest monument', it marked the culmination of Lord Ashton's second phase of redevelopment of this park, that had largely been begun by his father, James Williamson, and that had transformed rough moorland and quarries into stunning parkland.