Of course, the Kimmel is not perfect. It is perhaps a bit too flash for British tastes, it is distinctly clumsy around the edges, and although the cello-shaped 2,500 seat Verizon Hall within it is wonderfully warm and intimate for so large a space, I think I would come to tire of all its acres of dark mahogany. But that’s OK - the States is a different culture, their cities are organised differently, and over here we’d not only have different details and finishes, we’d have a different design. It’s getting the big idea built that counts. The Kimmel shows how even a relatively small city can have the nerve, the fundraising capability, and the cultural pride to build one of the best concert venues in the world. In Philadelphia, they can do it. In London, for whatever reason, we can’t.

I’d be overjoyed to be proved wrong on this. But what was interesting in Philadelphia was the sense of shared ownership. Only 40 per cent of its cost was public money. Apart from the big donation from clothing magnate Sidney Kimmel that put his name on it, there was a huge public response to the fundraising appeal, and when it opened the public clamoured to be let in. On the South Bank, we so far have just £37m of Lottery funding earmarked - all but £5m of it for the Royal Festival Hall revamp. You can’t build a new second concert hall for £5m. Until they work out where the money is going to come from, London’s hope of ever getting its Kimmel equivalent is utterly vain.