There goes the neighbourhood

You can always tell when you’re at the start of something – it’s hard to find. And that was true of the Spielhaus Morrison Gallery in Berlin. After a couple of attempts we found the gallery at the back of an industrial building, tucked next to another gallery specialising in drawings. The two partners who run the gallery Georg Speilhaus and Hamish Morrison (a New Zealander) have pitched their tent close by the Hamburger Bahnhof, the main public museum for contemporary art in Berlin. They must have felt rather lonely to start with among the motor bike repair shops and rental businesses, but we noticed that The Haunch of Venison has its sign up just down the road, another couple of galleries are about to open nearby and architectural practice Graft (the ones who work with Brad Pitt) are upstairs next door. It’s a familiar pattern. Soho and Chelsea in New York are only the most famous examples. In another year Spielhaus Morrison will be in the centre of a gallery zone, and it will be the mechanics looking over their shoulders.