Old England

From the short Museumstraat, you have an immediate right view of the Art Nouveau building Old England designed by architect Paul Saintenoy. For half a century, an elegant clothing store was located here. After a long vacancy, it was restored and now forms part of the Musical Instrument Museum. The cafeteria at the top, with a splendid view, is freely accessible.

The contrast between the transparent construction of glass and metal and the white-plastered, self-contained buildings next to it illustrates two diametrically opposed ideas. The emotional, dynamic, asymmetric vision versus a rational, static, and symmetric approach. Simply put, you could trace the entire history of art as a continuous oscillation between these two extremes.

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