One more piece of evidence that the most British or, more even, English of all continental cities is Hamburg, the beloved home town of your’s truly:
Finally, you can buy one of those slightly eccentric, but very stylish folding bikes by Brompton in a German shop dedicated to nothing but. Of course, it’s in Hamburg, in one of the coolest districts (which happened to house a certain blogger way back when).
And a slight tendency of combining a behavior characterized by spleens with distinguished style can be seen right in the URL logo of the Hamburg Brompton Store, a little folded bike 
Takes an Englishman – or a person from Hamburg – to carry himself with the required aplomb of riding such a rather geeky, say, hot pink dwarf of a bike. But then again, the English and the Hamburgers know how tightly a subway can be packed …
pics taken from the URL linked to above – isn’t it just way cool how they shelve the bikes??
I like the pixs. – A Brompton is hard to beat, not only when it comes to shelving space. If you really want a handy bike, I am sure you could hide one in your wardrobe – and noone will ever notice. The joy will be always yours and the Brompton will be really closest to all your dreams (unlike the many other amazing bikes in your storage room). Keep biking.
Thanks for that comment from someone who – as I know – really knows.
Thanks as well for the test ride; ever since my mind keeps coming back to „to Brompton or not to Brompton, that is the question“
🙂