If someone said the building they work in was called ‘Black Pearl’, ‘Emerald Court’, ‘City Garden’, or ‘The One’, you might imagine they worked in Hong Kong or Shanghai.

Or if said their building was called ‘The Capital’, ‘Parc Avenue’, or ‘The Pavillion’, you might believe yourself in New York.

Or maybe you think they work in London if the buildings are called ‘Covent Garden’, ‘Brittania’, ‘Livingstone’, or ‘White Park’?

Hong Kong? New York? London? All wrong. These are the names of European Commission buildings in central Brussels. No one quite knows why they have such grandiose names.