WITH OUR TENTH BIRTHDAY JUST AROUND THE CORNER
DESPERATE LITERATURE IS BEING KICKED OUT OF CAMPOMANES 13
& WE NEED YOUR HELP TO COMPLETE THE TRANSITION TO OUR NEW SPACE
WE NEED YOUR HELP TO SAVE DESPERATE LITERATURE:
Our bookshop is being forced to move to make way for tourist flats.
After over a year and a half of work, we have secured a new home, but now need your help to renovate the space.
The renovation budget is €80,000, of which we’re trying to crowdfund at least €25,000, the remainder of which we will supplement by further loans and, hopefully, some government funding.
We try to champion independent literary culture in Europe and hope you can support our efforts to keep the doors open!
AFTER 10 YEARS
AN OPPORTUNITY TO GROW:
When we heard that we had to leave Calle Campomanes, we were obviously heartbroken. We opened Desperate Literature in 2014, living in and working from the back of the store, opening seven days a week. With almost no money, we constructed the space ourselves from reclaimed materials, slowly building our community to what it is today.
To change space after so much investment is clearly a whole thing, but it didn’t take long looking for rental spaces to realise that our future was essentially dependent upon owning our own space. The gentrification of Madrid’s city centre, favouring tourist rentals and cheap tourism-driven businesses, is only accelerating, and it wouldn’t be long before we were forced to move a second time.
At the time, buying a space seemed like an almost impossible task, but after the initial shock of being forced from Campomanes, it became clear that we had to change our mindset: to see this as an opportunity to grow, to take the next step in the bookshop’s evolution.
And it happened. 🎉
We now need your help not to save the bookshop, but to establish Desperate Literature as a permanent feature in the Madrid literary landscape.
THE FULL INFO
FOR THOSE WHO WANT THE GOSS:
The moment our lawyer tells us we have to leave.
Early in 2023, we were informed that our building had been sold to a large firm intending to make luxury tourist apartments.
After a costly legal back-and-forth, we managed to secure our stay until May 2025 and began the slow hunt for a new home. We’re delighted to say that after eight months of searching, a lot of work, and significant negotiations with the bank, we managed to secure our new home in Calle Cava Baja!
THE RENOVATIONS:
The ideal plans for the new space thanks to the magnificent Fernando Bidegain!
Ana & Luis’s Fruteria:
The space is a former family-run fruit & veg ran shop with what felt like the perfect combination of ample space, charm, and history, but it was left completely empty. In order to rehabilitate the basement, the whole shop has to be brought up to 2024 building codes, including a costly air-conditioning unit, a new floor, and striping back the storefront to the original 19th brick. The space was left without sufficient access to water, and of course we have the entire shelving, display and till to build, not to speak of the transport of all our stock from Campomanes to Cava Baja.
Our aim is to create a permanent fixture in Madrid, respecting the aesthetic and culture of the area whilst bringing our own particular energy to the space.
Beyond that, we will expand our events space, make an author green room, establish a separate room for meet-ups, double our shelf space, and hope to install a beautiful mezzanine for browsing and readings, along with making reading nooks, a listening booth and much more.
If we get more than our necessary funds, we’ll even install a slide between the floors! Well, we’d like to do that, but in all likelihood we’ll pay back some of the €250k+ debt we’re in…