Simon Jenkins
Friday May 5, 2006
The Guardian
The recent transformation of its (Leeds') centre has been astonishing. Blessedly undamaged by bombs, it survived utopian destruction in the 1960s and 1970s, when Birmingham and Manchester were laying themselves to waste. As a result almost all Leeds streets retain their Victorian character. From the booming Aire river corridor with its million-pound maisonettes, uphill to Cuthbert Brodrick's magnificent town hall, a fine urban core is emerging from a history of grime. The spectacular Corn Exchange, the gothic markets building, Frank Matcham's superb County Arcade, the civic centre, churches, playhouses, alleys and courtyards are now interspersed with the other necessity of Jacobs's "double-shift" city: residential conversions.