It worked before, when a disused power station was converted into the world's fifth most popular museum in the world, and city planners in Vancouver are hoping it will work again when the city's downtown post office branch is converted into a brand new art gallery. The location is viewed as perfect for attracting visitors – an easily accessed, central location at the heart of the city.

Thirteen years ago, the disused Bankside Power Station on the south bank of the Thames reopened as Tate Modern, a museum for contemporary art. It is now the fifth most popular art museum in the world, with nearly five million visitors a year. The success of the Tate Modern is the best argument for moving the Vancouver Art Gallery a few blocks down Georgia Street to what is now — though not for long — the downtown branch of Vancouver’s post office.

The Tate Modern was an offshoot of the century-old Tate Gallery in Pimlico, since re-branded as Tate Britain.

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