Madrid No Frills

Buenavista 25 and Zurita 22 are the addresses of two charming residential buildings in Lavapiés that stand back-to-back on parallel streets. They’re connected by a small patio, where residents of the 10 flats exchange pleasantries while hanging their washing out to dry. However, in mid-march, pleasantries turned to organising when tenants learned that both of their buildings had been bought by film production company Gloriamundi Producciones. The corporation is now actively pressuring tenants to leave, but they have no plans on leaving their memories – not of one year nor a lifetime – behind.

The 162-year-old pink building on the corner of Calle Bastero and Calle Toledo had been abandoned for 15 years. Works were recently done on the building but only to be semi-completed and again left empty and abandoned. But, today, the pink building now belongs to the neighbours.

No one does protest like the neighbours of Lavapiés. On Saturday 3 February, 10 bands played on the stage of the neighbours: in the kitchens, living rooms and doorways of @vecinostribulete7 bringing an unprecedented concert to a building of 50 flats that are set to be evicted.

José (de 71 años) es inquilino de toda la vida del edificio 7 en la calle Tribulete, en Lavapiés. Su hija Blanca, apodada Blankita por sus padres, pasó los primeros 30 años de su vida allí. A pesar de ya no vivir allí, ha tomado la batuta – junto con su madre, Blanca – de la defensa del piso en el que sus padres han vivido durante más de 40 años.

José, 71, is a lifelong tenant of Calle Tribulete 7 in Lavapiés. His daughter Blanca, who José calls ‘Blankita’, spent the first 30 years of her life here. Despite no longer living here, she has taken up the mantle – along with her mother Blanca – of defending the apartment in which her parents have lived for more than 40 years.