An early view of what is now The Asiatic Society. John Murray's Handbook for Travelers in India Burma and Ceylon (1938) has this description of what was once the Town Hall:
"The Town Hall, designed by Col. T. Cowper, was opened in I833, and cost about £60,000, partly raised by lotteries. The building has a colonnade in front,and the façade is 260 ft. long.The pillars in front, and the external character of the edifice, are Doric; the interior is Corinthian. On the ground floor are some of the weightier curiosities of the Royal Asiatic Society. In the upper storey is the Grand Assembly Room, 100 ft. square, in which public meetings and balls are held; the Assembly Room of the Bombay Asiatic Society; and (in a wing) the fine Library of this Society, founded in I805 by Sir James Mackintosh when Recorder of Bombay (I804-I8II), containing about 100,000 volumes. The place of honour in the Grand Assembly Room is occupied by a statue of the distinguished Governor Mountstuart Elphinstone (I819-I827), executed by Chantrey, as were also those of Sir J. Malcolm (Governor I827-I830), and Sir C. Forbes, (I774-1849), a famous Bombay merchant, which are also in the building. At the head of the staircase, on one side, is a fine statue, by Foley, of Lord Elphinstone, the Governor during the Mutiny, and on the other side is a statue, by Woolner,of Sir Bartle Frere, an excellent likeness. Between the circular flights of stairs is Marochetti's statue of Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy.
"The Levee Rooms of the Governor and the Commander-in-Chief is no longer used for their original purposes. In the Library of the Asiatic Society, instituted in I804 for the investigation and encouragement of Oriental Arts, Sciences, and Literature, are busts of Sir James Rivett-Carnac (Governor 1838-41) by Chantrey, and Sir J. Mackintosh. The Geographical Room contains portraits of Sir Alexander Burnes (who was murdered at Kabul in November I84I) and the two first Presidents of the Bombay Geographical Society--Sir John Malcolm and Capt. Daniel Ross, a distinguished hydrographer who was for many years (until 1849) Marine Attendant at Bombay.The collection of maps is an extremely fine one. The Geographical Society and the Asiatic Society are now amalgamated" (p. 11).