We have no physical equivalent of Berlin's Museum Island, and they have no architectural equivalent to what the Brits are doing there. If in some alternative universe the British Museum, the National and Portrait Galleries, the Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum were all crammed into an eyot in the Thames somewhere around Blackfriars - in a state of partial ruination - that would give a flavour of it. Now a Unesco World Heritage site, Museumsinsel is still surprisingly little-known, remarkably under-populated for a warm early summer's day in midweek. I venture into the cafe in Schinkel's Altes Museum for a spot of lunch and find that I'm virtually the only person there. Imagine experiencing that in Blooms-bury, or Paris's Louvre district.
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