Guides · 13 November 2026

The Brooklyn of Berlin, Paris, Lisbon and more

“It’s the Brooklyn of…” is a line you read in every city guide. Williamsburg is rarely the only Brooklyn people mean, though. One person means the bars of Bushwick. Another means the strollers and brownstones of Park Slope. Here is where the Twinhoods map puts each of them in seven cities, and why.

Twinhoods describes every neighbourhood in the same way. How lively is it at night? How old? How arty, how posh, how close to the water? Then each place in a new city gets the name of its closest match in a city you know. Here the city you know is New York. The number next to each pair says how alike the two are.

Three Brooklyns in seven cities

We translated each city into New York and looked for the places that wear a Brooklyn name. The number in brackets is how alike the pair is, out of 100. These are AI-assisted similarity scores, not measurements, and they come from the live map on 13 November 2026.

“None close” means that city has no place the map matches to that part of Brooklyn. It does not mean the city lacks nice streets, only that nothing there is much like that one.

What neighbourhood in Berlin is like Brooklyn?

Berlin is the usual first question, and the map gives three answers.

Neukölln is Bushwick (92)

“Neukölln is greener and sits closer to the water, but otherwise it’s Bushwick all over: the bars are busy till late, artists and makers set the tone and it feels lived-in rather than polished.”

Prenzlauer Berg is Park Slope (99)

Families, high rents and good food. Prenzlauer Berg has less green and gets more tourists than Park Slope. Its neighbour Bergmannkiez is Boerum Hill, and Friedenau is Carroll Gardens.

Treptow is Williamsburg (85)

The match is not as close. Treptow has fewer shops and less of a food scene. What it shares with Williamsburg is the river, the late bars and the makers.

Some guides call Kreuzberg Berlin’s Williamsburg. The map disagrees. It sends Kreuzberg to the Lower East Side at 99, and the East Village at 99. Williamsburg is its third choice, at 89. The map says Kreuzberg is younger than the Lower East Side and has a bigger queer scene.

The other six

Paris: Canal Saint-Martin is Williamsburg (96)

The map’s words: “Canal Saint-Martin is basically Williamsburg: artists and makers set the tone, people come for the food and the bars are busy till late.” It has fewer shops. Ménilmontant is Bushwick, with more history and more green. Batignolles is a blend of Carroll Gardens and Park Slope.

Istanbul: Kadıköy is Williamsburg (99)

The same pair as in the Shoreditch guide. The map says Kadıköy is younger and less posh than Williamsburg. Yeldeğirmeni, nearby, is Bushwick. Moda is Park Slope: more water, fewer families.

Barcelona: Poblenou is Williamsburg (97)

The reason on the map: “both were industrial, now creative.” Poblenou has fewer shops and goes to bed earlier. La Barceloneta is Coney Island, denser and open later.

Lisbon: Beato is Bushwick (99), Santos is Williamsburg (85)

Beato is another place with “both were industrial, now creative” as its reason. It goes to bed earlier than Bushwick and sits closer to the water. Santos has more history and fewer shops than Williamsburg. LX Factory is DUMBO, at 70.

Copenhagen: Christiania covers two (92)

The map reads Christiania as Bushwick and Williamsburg at once: artists and makers, lived-in, late bars. It gets more tourists and is less of a mix. By the water, Refshaleøen is Red Hook.

Amsterdam: the quiet streets

Amsterdam is the city where Williamsburg’s twin scores lowest: Buiksloterham, at 73. The strong ones are on the family side. Hoofddorppleinbuurt is Park Slope at 99, and Frederik Hendrikbuurt is Carroll Gardens at 99. NDSM is Red Hook (93).

If you mean the waterfront

Some people say “Brooklyn” and mean the old docks. The map has twins for those too: KNSM-eiland in Amsterdam is DUMBO (92), Islands Brygge in Copenhagen is DUMBO (82), and Île Saint-Louis in Paris is Brooklyn Heights (85).

How to read the number

The number is how alike the two places are, as “% same vibe”. Close to 100 means nearly the same. Two places picked at random score about 50, and a typical match scores about 80. A low number means the city has nothing very close to that place. Then even the best name is a stretch.

Tap any place on the map to read its reason in full: what the two share and how they differ. If a match makes no sense to you, write to hello@twinhoods.com. A real person reads every message.

One honest note

These matches are from the live map on 13 November 2026. We improve the method and the data often, so a pair can change. The map always shows the current answer. The profiles are written with AI help and checked against open data such as OpenStreetMap. The FAQ explains how. See also the Shoreditch of Berlin, Paris, Lisbon and more.

See Berlin, translated into New York

Or pick any two cities on twinhoods.com.