Nostalgia for the past: legendary places of Santa Cruz de Tenerife that have disappeared from the city map.
In Santa Cruz de Tenerife, people remember the lost emblematic places, such as bookstores, music stores and ice cream parlors, which were once important to the locals.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife remembers iconic places such as the Discos Manzana, Maya, or Deportes Lovero stores, which the DIARIO DE AVISOS newspaper wrote about. Now that the world is changing and buying goods is different, much has disappeared. Only memories remain.
Bookstores, ice cream parlors – these legendary places in Santa Cruz live only in our memory. Let's remember them.
In January 2019, Librería La Isla, one of the city's most famous bookstores, closed. Back in 2014, the store on Robaina Street, where many locals bought their first book, was closed. And with the closure of the store on Imeldo Serís Street, an entire era in the history of trade, which united several generations of Tenerife residents, came to an end.
José María Celis founded this store in 1971. Initially, it was called Rexachs and sold electrical appliances, but then it became a bookstore and record store. In those days, there was censorship, and there was only one publishing house. Over almost 50 years, the store has survived three generations of owners (the last ones were the founder's grandchildren), changed its name to La Isla Libros, and developed along with the book market. There were as many as 4 stores of this chain in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
On the same Imeldo Serís Street, where the La Isla bookstore was located, there was also the Sonora Discos store, which also closed in 2019.
For decades, Sonora Discos sold cassettes, CDs, and vinyl records. Over time, in order to survive, the store had to specialize. Thus, Sonora Discos began to sell mainly rock and jazz.
It was a favorite place for music lovers who knew a lot about music. Now they are left without one of their favorite stores in Santa Cruz.
After 60 years of operation in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the Marks & Spencer store on del Pilar Street closed in 2023. There are only six stores of this British company, which sells clothing and food, left in all of Spain.
It was thanks to food products that this store was so popular in the city. There you could buy cookies, tea, sweets, which, according to the Galloway family, the owners of the franchise in Tenerife, were the most purchased in the store.
"On behalf of the Galloway family and all our staff, we thank you for the trust you have placed in us over these 60 years," they said in farewell.
Once, when there were not as many ice cream parlors as there are now, La Flor de Alicante was one of the best not only in Santa Cruz, but also in all of Tenerife. Their horchata (a drink made from tiger nuts) and meringue milk were very popular, and thousands of people bought them.
On September 30, 2015, Julio Muñoz ended his career and closed the La Flor de Alicante ice cream parlor after more than 40 years of operation. This is how the story of another iconic place in Tenerife ended.
Later, La Flor de Alicante reopened in another location, but it was no longer as popular as before.
Nearby, at the end of De La Rosa Street, opposite the head office of CajaCanarias (now La Caixa), was La Alicantina.
A photograph that can be found in the Facebook group Fotos antiguas de Tenerife shows that it was a small, narrow space that had to be accessed by stairs.
La Flor de Alicante and La Alicantina competed for who would make the best horchata. They also competed for the best vanilla ice cream in the city.
For various reasons, many other places that we miss have closed in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. But these five are undoubtedly the most memorable.