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HOME
No Frills
- “I’m tired”: our naïve nostalgia for Madrid’s no-frills bars
  
  The Madrid No Frills Prints Collection
  
  Gracias por su visita: A no-frills photography project about the Spanish tortilla
  
  Seven no-frills decades of Estrecho’s Bar Los Pepes
  
  The art of being a Madrid muse
Spotlight
- How Madrid’s social housing crisis turns paying tenants into “illegal squatters”
  
  The Cañada Real: “Electricity is not a privilege, it’s a right”
  
  Life under lockdown in a Greek refugee camp
  
  Celebrating the voices of Barrio La Guindalera
  
  Empty Spain: The Valley of Fornela
Living Museums
- “We owe our success to the Gay community”: Chueca’s Restaurante El Bierzo turns 50 this year
  
  The House of Suitcases
  
  The little pastry shop celebrating Madrid’s changing seasons
  
  Madrid’s Human Beehive
  
  The churrerías preserving Madrid’s disappearing street food culture
Lost & Found
- Stolpersteine reveal Madrid’s Nazi war camp victims’ last chosen address
  
  Visit Spain in the 1970s via a box of postcards found in El Rastro
  
  Discover the juxtaposed remains of Madrid’s 170-year-old aqueduct
  
  The story of Madrid’s hidden (and noseless) Virgin Mary statue
  
  Map created under lockdown locates all graffiti artworks in Tetuán
Let’s talk
- The Riders’ Law
  
  Storm Filomena
  
  Snow in the Cañada
  
  How Madrid’s social housing crisis turns paying tenants into “illegal squatters”
  
  Selective confinement reawakens Vallekas’ ancient spirit of resistance
Activism
- What are CIEs, who is trying to close them, and why?
  
  Lavapiés’ food banks keep going: sun, rain or snow
  
  The power and art of protest photography
  
  Selective confinement reawakens Vallekas’ ancient spirit of resistance
  
  As Lavapiés’ food banks endure, it’s time to get involved
Prints
- The Madrid No Frills Prints Collection
About

El Boqueron Bar in Full Swing

18 July 2016

El Boqueron Bar in Full Swing was last modified: July 18th, 2016 by Madrid No Frills

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“We owe our success to the Gay community”: Chueca’s Restaurante El Bierzo turns 50 this year
16 February 2021
The Riders’ Law
15 February 2021
Storm Filomena
9 February 2021
Stolpersteine reveal Madrid’s Nazi war camp victims’ last chosen address
5 February 2021
What are CIEs, who is trying to close them, and why?
29 January 2021

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✊🏾 The fight for Spain's Sanidad Pública (NH

✊🏾 The fight for Spain's Sanidad Pública (NHS) explained:

The effects of the privatisation of healthcare in Spain were bad before, but they’ve only been amplified by the pandemic. How?

💸 PRIVATISATION OF HOSPITALS AND SURGERIES

Private health centres and hospitals give priority to the most profitable patients (the wealthy and healthy) and deprioritise emergency care and intensive care units, which is devastating in a pandemic. Preparing for a pandemic involves spending money in the hope that it’s not necessary – something only the public sector can achieve because it does not prioritise profit.

💸 PRIVATISATION OF CARE HOMES

The effects of privatisation have been even more serious in nursing homes, where they’ve kept their costs low by hiring very few staff who are badly paid and not adequately trained, who receive little to no sick pay (forcing them to come to work even when ill) and who are also forced to work at multiple facilities to make enough income. All of this contributes to the spread of the virus.

The workload of private healthcare nurses is also higher than public healthcare nurses. Private healthcare nurses look after an average of five more patients a day, while their salaries are 20–25% lower.

💸 CUTS & EU AUSTERITY

Amnesty International has described how a decade of austerity policies (enacted partly to comply with EU expenditure rules) saw public healthcare spending drop by 11.2% from 2009 to 2018, even as Spain’s GDP grew by 8.6% in part due to a boom in tourism. These cuts left primary care services overstretched, understaffed and underfunded when Covid-19 hit us, with public health workers facing impossible workloads, personal risk, exhaustion and stress.

💸 DISASTER CAPITALISM

The private hospitals lobby appears to be using the Covid-19 crisis to further establish and expand the role of the private sector, which will very simply kill off our most vulnerable and marginalised communities, especially people with disabilities, migrants and the elderly.

What is he marching for?

✊🏾 No more cuts
✊🏾 No more privatisation
✊🏾 Protect public services from the EU’s trade and investment agenda
✊🏾 Sanidad Pública ♥️

#sanidadpublica

A group of neo-Nazis infiltrated a peaceful protes

A group of neo-Nazis infiltrated a peaceful protest yesterday.

Around 100 people, most of whom were trade unionist pensioners, chanted "Sanidad Pública" as they marched down Calle Alcalá in defense our public health system and against its privatisation.

Minutes after I took these photos, a leading figure of the protest – a member of the @cgt_madrid – was arrested. No neo-Nazis were arrested, they were peacefully escorted away by the police.

In this picture: an elderly protestor, furious at what is happening, tries to reason with a police officer. What just unfolded was deeply problematic: the far right in Spain is growing. I'd love nothing more than to tell you how and why but because of Ley Mordaza (the Gag Law), my post must end here.

• The CGT is an association of workers that defines itself as anarcho-syndicalist. They were formed in 1979 during the post-Franco transition period and many protestors there yesterday will have been a part of this trade union since its founding.

• Madrid's neo-Nazi movement appears to be growing in strength and number. They held an authorised protest a couple of weeks ago. There is currently an investigation into how they were given permission to march openly in the streets of Madrid.

The cherry blossom on Calle Miguel Servet is in fu

The cherry blossom on Calle Miguel Servet is in full bloom and the terraces smell so sweet 🌺🐝🍻💕

This also means it's once again time to repost my article about the best places to see the almond and cherry blossom in Madrid! Link in bio @madridnofrills 👈🏾

#lavapies #flores #blossom #madrid

Who remembers these two legends? 🐶🐺 Madrid

Who remembers these two legends? 🐶🐺

Madrid's streets were their home, and they were owned by local rough sleepers who took turns to look after them, give them food and clothe them, as you can see in this photo which I took maybe seven years ago now.

They were the most streetwise duo – nothing could frighten them. If you caught their eye, they could see into your soul. They were utterly inseparable, even off their leash.

I haven't seen them in a few years now. I wonder what they're up to...

#perrosdelacalle

When a town is so small the bodeguilla is called '

When a town is so small the bodeguilla is called 'La Bodeguilla' because it's *the* bodeguilla 🍷

Still on the search for the real-life El Bar. One day I'll find it ♥️ #elbar

Just a reminder that this blog is not a public ser

Just a reminder that this blog is not a public service and that I don’t get paid to do it, I don’t win awards for it, and I don’t enjoy any kind of fame or attention I get from it.

Also a reminder that I did not create this platform to serve its audience; I created it to provide equal representation for marginalised communities in the Spanish media and for you, if you want, to be a part of creating change.

Almost every post and article you will ever see on this blog holds its origins in under-represented groups of society: the working-class, the racially segregated, the oppressed, the forgotten. You'll also find me sharing the occasional pretty photo of Madrid just because 💕

You may also have noticed that I never ask for feedback, and this is for a very specific reason: I don’t need it. I don't ask for comments about what I should write about, that I’m "not doing enough", "I'm surprised you're not white", "I'm surprised you're a woman", "I doubt your information sources", and "I don’t agree with your point of view".

Why?

Because I already have a team of people that I trust who help me devote time to this platform and provide me with a safe space to discuss my ideas, thoughts, doubts and concerns. They’re my Patrons, and they’re a big part of the reason why this blog is the machine it is today ♥️

Want to be a part of this? Become a Patron and support what I do, tell me what you think and keep giving me the confidence, strength and empowerment I need to level the playing field on the coverage of the communities you care about. Link in bio @madridnofrills.

PS, It’s a shame that I have to write these reminders every now and then, but this is me trying to manage the backlash, trolling and hate, and to avoid burning out. Managing 30,000 followers on my own is a bit of a headf*ck sometimes.

Thanks for understanding.

Leah x

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