Architecture Update: An era of pink concrete

A WAR of words has broken out between Leeds City Council and the Victorian Society over changes that the council says will make the city cleaner, safer and more accessible.

The society criticises the replacement of sandstone and granite kerbstones with pink concrete ones, and says that new barriers, signs and seats will mean that 'streets are to be mutilated by the imposition of meretricious and ephemeral contemporary design features on a city which should, and could, stand in the traditional and permanent quality of its architecture and workmanship'.

The council says: 'The issue of pink kerbstones is a subjective one, and many would say they complement their surroundings.'