Eldiario.es criticises approval of legal street market in Madrid's Olavide square

Madrid's Olavide square hosted a street market with around 50 stalls on Saturday 19 September 2026 which, according to residents, attracted some 8,000 people to a 10,000-square-metre space already partly taken up by café terraces and green areas. The permit would have been granted by the Chamberí Municipal District Board, which has not disclosed the number of stalls.

Olavide square, in the Chamberí neighbourhood, is one of those spaces that appear in guidebooks as an example of a lively neighbourhood square. On Saturday 19 September 2026 that liveliness multiplied to the point that, according to residents who have described what peine, some 8,000 people gathered there. The reason: an authorised street market with around 50 stalls selling clothes, haberdashery, cheese and other food products.

## A municipal permit for around fifty stalls

The stalls were set up with authorisation from the Chamberí Municipal District Board or the competent body, according to the residents' account. The Board has not disclosed the exact number of stalls. Those who reported the situation estimate around 50, including stalls selling women's, teenagers', children's and babies' clothing, artisanal haberdashery, cheese and other foods.

The square covers 10,000 square metres, but a large part is permanently occupied. Twelve café terraces line the entire outer perimeter and already take up 20% of the space; that Saturday they were full day and night with some 1,500 people. To this perimeter is added a circular ring of greenery and trees that reduces the usable space by another 5%. The two children's play areas, covering 8% of the square, were also fully occupied.

The interior houses the ornamental fountain in the centre, planters, tree pits, the lift and stairs of the underground car park, and benches and tables scattered unevenly. The stalls were set up in the free gaps, some of them blocking entrances to or exits from the square. Around 5,000 people, according to the residents' estimate, moved from stall to stall. An almost summery temperature helped make the crowds massive.

## Twelve hours of market versus the usual two or three

Residents' discontent is directed less at the existence of street markets than at their duration and location. Many towns and cities hold weekly markets selling local or artisanal produce, but in out-of-the-way places. When they are set up in large or neighbourhood squares, they rarely last more than two, three or four hours. In Olavide, according to residents, they lasted twelve hours.

In recent years the square has become a must-see stop for tourist guides, which present it as an almost paradigmatic space. Residents say that label has turned the place into a conflict of interests: noise, dirt, damage and abusive use of any spot for eating. The neighbourhood, they say, has changed radically and become a showcase for drinking.

The anthropologist **Manuel Delgado**, emeritus professor of Religious and Urban Anthropology, has written the essay "Todas las ciudades están poseídas" ("All cities are possessed") and argues in an interview with **El País** that "all cities are possessed by the demon of the urban". Delgado warns that when politicians talk about creating quality urban spaces, it is worth asking whether one is of sufficient quality for that space, and notes that mayors conceive of cities as products for sale. If they pedestrianise a street, he adds, they often think of turning it into an open-air shopping centre.

## Residents' use of the square and the right to the city

For those who live around it, Olavide square is an urban space used primarily by residents: a right to the city and the neighbourhood, to leisure, calm and rest. A twelve-hour street market with around fifty stalls in an enclosure with terraces, green areas and reduced play areas clashes with that use.

The comparison with other street markets is no accident. The difference lies not in the commercial activity itself, but in its scale and duration. A two- or three-hour market in a main square is a one-off event; twelve hours with thousands of people in a 10,000-square-metre space, a significant part of which is permanently occupied, is another matter.

The same weekend, the square hosted an awareness event for World Cancer Day, supporting and raising funds for research. The residents who reported the market welcome that other use. Their distinction is clear: they do not oppose the square hosting activities, but rather its becoming a massive commercial enclosure for entire days.

Authorisation for this type of event falls to the Chamberí Municipal District Board. The number of stalls has not been disclosed by the Board, and the attendance figure comes from the residents' estimate of the day. Any decision on the use of public space and municipal permits should be verified through the relevant administrative channels.