We have ended and started the new year focusing on a street that we have all surely passed through at some point. Ferran Street, in the Gòtic neighborhood. We have focused, paradoxically, on the very discreet Sant Jordi bookstore, which opened in 1983 and which now, if no one does anything, will end up closing. Despite the owner's efforts in recent years, his lease ends in February and there are not many options to save it.
But sometimes, from bad news, good things come out, although it may already be too late. The owner, Josep Morales, died and family and friends made a call to sell the immense collection of books in the premises before closing. In Barcelona, it is common to pay tribute to emblematic or unique stores when they already have a death sentence hanging over them. But, even so, the citizen response, the queues and the solidarity with the premises have shown, again, that many residents are very concerned about the disappearance of a business that is not for tourists and that gives identity to a neighborhood and a city.
All of this has put the spotlight on this street, where traditional shops are truly endangered species. Hidden among Irish pubs and fast food restaurants (tacos and burritos included), ice cream parlors, some cannabis-themed shop and, above all, mobile phone case and souvenir shops. The street has become a catalog of the city's worst memories. T-shirts with allusions to drug lord Pablo Escobar, bottle openers with phallic shapes or lighters and ashtrays with breasts drawn and typical bachelor party messages. In fact, at the entrances, at both ends of the street, you can already get an idea of what's there: at one end, on the corner with La Rambla, a McDonald's and a KFC welcome you and, at the other end, on the corner with Plaça Sant Jaume, a 24-hour supermarket, Alcampo, and a sunglasses franchise.
The transformation of this street, where historically there were some of the best and most exotic shops in the city, was demonstrated with the pandemic. During the exceptional period without tourists, the street was plunged into silence and some of the establishments ended up closing. Now activity, with touts, delivery drivers waiting at the restaurant doors, tourists strolling and locals quickening their pace and dodging those who are not in a hurry, has returned.
If we stop, however, we will see more things. As always, one must look up, where we will find stately facades with rounded points, elegant signs of old, now closed shops, such as the Casa Massana confectionery, founded in 1835 and credited with the invention of the Easter Mona, and the also old church of Sant Jaume, at number 28. A street that, unlike the alleys that lead into it, is wide, with light, traffic is not prohibited, but pedestrians have made it completely their own because the sidewalks are narrow and insufficient.
Ferran Street is a street that connects. When it was built in 1824, it aimed to link La Rambla with the Ciutadella fortress. Now it connects the political power of Sant Jaume square with popular power, the one on La Rambla, but it also connects two neighborhoods, the Gòtic with the Raval. A street that allows for a shortcut, saving the detour through the more labyrinthine streets of Ciutat Vella, and where you can run into a couple of Japanese tourists as easily as with city councilors and officials.