A tale of two cities

Keith Archer reports on the recent QCEA study tour in Brussels and Strasbourg

by Keith Archer 17th July 2015

If you’ve never been to Quaker House in Brussels, you’re missing something. It’s a fine Art Nouveau former townhouse, recently restored to its original splendour by the Belgian government, on a corner overlooking a leafy square. And if you’ve never been to Brussels, you’re missing something. There is the Brussels of the Grand Place, the royal palace, the restaurants and the tourists – very much a European capital. There is also the Brussels of the European Union institutions – arguably ‘the’ European capital. And there is workaday Brussels, in areas like St Joss, where our hotel was, with many immigrants mostly from Turkey and North Africa.