Short answer
Because stone is heavy, and until canals and railways a town was built from whatever could be quarried within carting distance, so one rock formation supplied nearly every wall. The colour of that rock is set mostly by how much iron it holds and in what form: almost none in a pale limestone, yellow-brown goethite in a honey-coloured one, red oxide coating the grains of a red sandstone. Granites and basalts take the averaged colour of their crystals instead.
Edinburgh shows the sequence clearly because its building stones have been traced quarry by quarry. The Old and New Towns were built from sandstone quarried within and beside the city; as those quarries were exhausted, builders looked first to the Lothians and Fife and then, as canals and railways developed, to the rest of Scotland and northern England. Red Permian sandstone from Dumfries only became available in Edinburgh from about 1850, once the Caledonian Railway was complete, and in Glasgow the same red stone was commonly used from the late nineteenth century. A change of colour between a city's Georgian and late-Victorian streets is therefore often a change of transport, not of taste.
The exceptions were stones that could travel by sea. Portland limestone reached London from Dorset from the seventeenth century, which is why it marks national monuments rather than ordinary streets.
Limestone and sandstone are made of minerals that are close to colourless: calcite and quartz. What tints them is iron. In Bath Stone the iron is sparse, and where pyrite in the rock has oxidised to goethite it shows as orange to reddish-brown stains in an otherwise cream stone. In the red sandstone quarried at Locharbriggs the iron is a coating of oxide on every rounded quartz grain, so the whole rock is red. Edinburgh's Hailes quarry produced pink, blue-grey and white stone from one pit, and the survey attributes the pink to iron oxide. Laterite on India's western coast and the volcanic scorias of Mexico and Lalibela are red for the same reason at higher concentration: they are rich in haematite.
Granite has no single colour to speak of. Under a microscope the Rubislaw granite that built much of Aberdeen is large plates of quartz intergrown with plagioclase and microcline feldspar, small brown biotite grains and plates of muscovite; at walking distance the eye blends them into grey, and the mica faces catch the light. Porto's granite is recorded as light grey to white with a yellowish variation from quarries where the rock was altered after it crystallised, and Madrid's Alpedrete granite as grey with slight variations in tone. Fine-grained basalt blends further still: Melbourne's 'bluestone' is described by the geological register simply as medium grey.
A stone's name is a poor guide to a single colour. The Kinnesswood Formation sandstones worked in Edinburgh's oldest quarries ranged from white through buff and light brownish-grey to pink and red. The limestones sold as Jerusalem stone run from white to pink, yellow and tawny. Lisbon's Lioz is usually ivory but has pink and yellow varieties, and Welsh slate was quarried in purple, blue, blue-grey, green and red veins. Along the Cotswold outcrop the same family of oolitic limestones is described as honey-coloured in the north, golden in the centre and pearly white towards Bath. Any statement of the form 'the colour of' a stone town is choosing one point in a range.
The table on this page lists 24 documented links between a place and a building stone. Almost all of the colour descriptions are words chosen by geologists for a designation record or a field guide: 'cream', 'pale buff', 'reddish brown'. Only one carries a colour notation — a Munsell reading of 5YR 7/1 printed by the British Geological Survey beside a single polished specimen from Hailes quarry — and that describes one hand sample, not Edinburgh. For Paris the source says what the city was built from, Lutetian limestone, and says nothing about its colour, so the colour cell is left empty. That blank is deliberate: the alternative is to supply a colour from impressions.
| Place | Scope | Material | Colour, in the source's words | Why | Provenance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bath | City or town | Bath Stone, an oolitic limestone of the Great Oolite Group | White, pale, creamy or buff, weathering to a honey colour | A limestone of calcite ooids that is cream when cut. Its iron is sparse: pyrite in the rock oxidises to goethite, which shows as orange to reddish-brown stains. The register separately records that the stone weathers to a honey colour. | Documented (strong) |
| The Cotswolds | Region or island | Cotswold stone, Jurassic oolitic limestone | Honey-coloured in the north and north-east, golden in the centre and south, pearly white towards Bath | The same family of oolitic limestones as Bath Stone; the reference source describes the variation without measuring the iron that would explain it. | Documented (moderate) |
| London | A group of buildings | Portland Limestone from the Isle of Portland, Dorset | Cream with grey, white and light brown variants | An ooidal and bioclastic limestone, pale through its body. A survey guide notes it is startlingly white when clean but often becomes stained black. | Documented (strong) |
| Edinburgh | City or town | Craigleith and related local sandstones | Very pale buff with variable dark wispy markings (Craigleith specimen) | The source describes the colour rather than explaining it. By contrast it attributes the pink of neighbouring Hailes stone to iron oxide, which this pale stone evidently lacks. | Documented (strong) |
| Hailes Quarry, Edinburgh | Single site or quarry | Hailes sandstone, used for rubble work, steps and landings | Pinkish grey — Munsell 5YR 7/1 | The quarry produced pink, blue-grey and white laminated stone. The survey attributes the pink tint to iron oxide; black flecks are fossil plant debris. | Measured (strong) |
| South Edinburgh | District | Kinnesswood Formation sandstones (formerly Upper Old Red Sandstone) | White through buff and light brownish-grey to pink and red | One formation yields a range from near-white to red. The source lists the colours; the pinks and reds are the iron-oxide tints it identifies elsewhere in Edinburgh stone. | Documented (strong) |
| Edinburgh | A group of buildings | Locharbriggs and other Permian red sandstones from Dumfries & Galloway | Red; 'brick-red' for the Caledonian Hotel | Desert dune sand: rounded quartz grains each coated with iron oxide and weakly cemented by silica, so the red is a thin skin on every grain. | Documented (strong) |
| Glasgow | District | Local cream Carboniferous sandstone, with red Permian sandstone from Locharbriggs from the late nineteenth century | Cream and red | Two geologies of different age: Carboniferous delta sandstones with little iron, and Permian desert sandstones whose grains carry an iron-oxide coating. | Documented (strong) |
| Aberdeen | City or town | Two-mica granite from Rubislaw and neighbouring quarries | Grey, sparkling where mica catches the light | A mosaic of clear quartz, pale plagioclase and microcline feldspar and dark biotite, with muscovite plates; the eye averages the crystals to grey and the mica cleavage faces glint. | Editorially derived (moderate) |
| Paris | City or town | Lutetian limestone, 'Paris stone', quarried beneath and around the city | Not stated by the source | A marine limestone laid down about 45 million years ago. The source describes its origin and use, not its colour. | Documented (strong) |
| Salamanca | District | Villamayor Stone, an Eocene arkose | White to ochre and red, developing an ochreous or golden patina | A sandstone containing iron oxyhydroxides. The golden tone is partly a patina that forms after the stone is laid, not the colour of the fresh block. | Documented (strong) |
| Lisbon | A group of buildings | Lioz, a Cretaceous limestone with rudist fossils | Ivory; less commonly light or deep pink; seldom yellow | A microcrystalline limestone, ivory in its common form; the pink and yellow varieties are named quarry types within the same unit. | Documented (strong) |
| Valletta and the Maltese islands | Region or island | Globigerina Limestone | Pale yellow to cream | A Miocene limestone made largely of planktonic foraminifera shells, in continuous use for building for some six thousand years according to the register. | Documented (strong) |
| Florence | A group of buildings | Pietra Serena, a sandstone from the northern Apennines | Bluish green or cerulean, and ochraceous | A lithic arkose of quartz, feldspar, micas and chlorite in a clay matrix with calcite cement. The register gives two colour varieties without explaining the difference. | Documented (strong) |
| Jaisalmer | City or town | Jaisalmer Limestone, a Jurassic oolitic to bioclastic limestone | Yellow, 'golden' | A limestone tinted yellow through its body, quarried around the city; the register gives the colour without analysing the iron behind it. | Documented (strong) |
| Mexico City and the Basin of Mexico | A group of buildings | Tezontle, a lightweight volcanic scoria | Reddish | Oxidised basaltic scoria: the oxidised iron reddens it. It was valued for its low density on soft, waterlogged ground. | Documented (strong) |
| Lalibela | A group of buildings | Lalibela Basaltic Scoria | Reddish brown, pink or dark grey | A vesicular volcanic rock rich in haematite. The churches are cut downward into the outcrop, so their colour is the colour of the ground. | Documented (strong) |
| Porto | City or town | Porto Granite, a two-mica granite | Light grey to white, with a natural yellowish variation | A crystalline mix of quartz, feldspar and mica; the yellowish stone comes from quarries where the granite was altered after it crystallised. | Documented (strong) |
| Madrid | City or town | Alpedrete Granite, a monzogranite from the Guadarrama foothills | Grey with slight variations in tone | An even-grained granite whose quartz, feldspar and biotite average to a homogeneous grey. | Documented (strong) |
| Melbourne | A group of buildings | Malmsbury Bluestone, a basalt | Medium grey | A fine-grained basalt of dark iron- and magnesium-bearing minerals. 'Bluestone' is a trade name; the register describes the rock as grey. | Documented (strong) |
| Winnipeg and the Canadian prairie cities | A group of buildings | Tyndall Stone, an Ordovician dolomitic limestone | Cream to light grey, with darker dolomite mottles | A pale limestone in which burrows were replaced by slightly darker dolomite, giving a mottled surface. | Documented (strong) |
| Goa and the Konkan coast | Region or island | Western Ghats Laterite | Reddish brown to dark | A weathering crust formed on basalt and greywacke, made of iron oxides and hydroxides (haematite, goethite, magnetite) with gibbsite and kaolinite. | Documented (strong) |
| Jerusalem | City or town | Local limestones and dolomites sold as 'Jerusalem stone' (meleke, mizzi hilu, mizzi ahmar) | White to pink, yellow and tawny | Several Cretaceous limestones of differing purity, so a single trade name covers a range from near-white to reddish-banded stone. | Documented (moderate) |
| Marrakesh | A group of buildings | Red city walls and red sandstone buildings | Red; hence 'Red City' or 'Ochre City' | The reference source reports red walls, red sandstone and the nickname without analysing the material; the iron-oxide family is inferred from the colour. | Documented (moderate) |
Each statement is labelled by kind — established fact, a standard’s requirement, observed market data, a convention, or Colourwise’s own interpretation or analysis — with the strength of the evidence behind it.
FactStrong evidence· Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Edinburgh's Old and New Towns were built from local sandstone; as local supplies were exhausted in the nineteenth century builders turned to the Lothians and Fife and then, with canals and railways, to other parts of Scotland and northern England.
FactStrong evidence· Scotland
Red Permian sandstone from the Dumfries area became available in Edinburgh from about 1850 after the Caledonian Railway was completed; Locharbriggs stone consists of rounded quartz grains coated with iron oxide and weakly cemented by silica.
FactStrong evidence· Bath, United Kingdom
Bath Stone is a mostly cream-coloured oolitic limestone in which pyrite has oxidised to goethite, producing dull orange to reddish-brown stains; the geological register describes the stone as white, pale, creamy or buff and as weathering to a honey colour.
Caveat: The mineral study explains local staining; it does not measure the colour of the city's façades.
Source: Iron Minerals in Bath Stone (Great Oolite, Middle Jurassic, UK): Pyrite, Goethite and Glauconite, their Spectra and Origins; IUGS Heritage Stone: Bath Stone
FactStrong evidence· Edinburgh, United Kingdom
A specimen of Hailes sandstone in the British Geological Survey's Petrology Collection is captioned with the Munsell notation 5YR 7/1, pinkish grey; the quarry produced pink, blue-grey and white stone, the pink owing its tint to iron oxide.
Method: Munsell notation given in the survey's specimen caption.
Caveat: One hand specimen compared with a colour chart; viewing conditions are not stated.
Source: Building stones of Edinburgh: introduction; Building stones in Edinburgh from the West Lothian Oil-Shale Formation
FactStrong evidence· Western India
Western Ghats laterite is described as reddish brown to dark and as composed of iron oxides and hydroxides (magnetite, haematite, goethite) with gibbsite and kaolinite; it was used for coastal forts and as the core material of the churches and convents of Goa.
Colourwise interpretationLimited evidence
A colour difference between a British city's older and later stone streets more often records when distant quarries became reachable than a change in what builders wanted.
Based on: Read from the survey's dated accounts of when each stone reached Edinburgh and Glasgow; neither source measures builders' preferences, and fashion for red stone may also have played a part.
Caveat: Based on two Scottish cities with unusually well-traced stone.
Source: Building stones of Edinburgh: introduction; Building stones in Edinburgh from the Permian and Triassic New Red Sandstone of Dumfries & Galloway and Cumbria; Building stones of Glasgow — an excursion
Reviewed 6 October 2026. Colourwise summarises its sources in its own words and does not reproduce standards text or proprietary colour data. Spotted an error? Tell us.