I’m walking through Leeds city centre, West Yorkshire, like an awe struck tourist, taken aback by the blatantly ‘in your face’ building colour scheme – Leeds loves red.

It’s funny how you can spend a lot of time in a place and not really see it for what it is, fail to appreciate it’s impressive features, it’s quirkiness and proud stature.

Sometimes you really need to be away from a place for a while to see it more clearly.

I was seeing Leeds city centre through fresh eyes.

Red brick buildings on every turn, alongside ornately carved stone features and more elaborate glass domed shopping arcades than you can count.

Leeds mixes the old with the new to great effect, creatively designed.

I started imagining I was in some other European destination as I glanced up at some of the striking city architecture thinking “Leeds you really are lovely”.

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Leeds City Council: Town Hall

A slight diversion from the red theme, Leeds City Town Hall boasts an entirely different image. I don’t usually spend time blogging about ‘town halls’, or even taking pictures of town halls, but on this occasion I felt compelled to make an exception.

The majestic entrance could pass itself off as a royal palace, oriental or far eastern temple, or some other mystical building from a scene out of Nights of Arabia, but it’s nothing quite so exotic – it happens to be a victorian building that went up in the 1800s.

Leeds has taken a serious level of pride in their town hall, and why not.

Leeds Town Hall has got to the most beautiful town hall entrance I’ve seen so far, it’s the only one that has made me stop to take photographs.

Those tall ornate doors and exceptionally high pillars made quite an imposing impression, reminding me that I was entering a place of high importance.

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