Enric Granados, the street that closed to cars

Enric Granados runs from Diagonal down to the gardens of the old university, one of the few Eixample streets that ends in green rather than traffic. For most of the last century it was a through road like any other. Today it is paved from wall to wall, cars may enter only to reach a garage, at walking pace, and the street belongs to the cafés and to the people who live above them.

What changed

The change itself was simple. The city took out the kerbs and the parking lanes, laid one level surface and let the café terraces spread. Nothing was built and nothing was knocked down. Within a few years the ground floors that had been car showrooms, a bank branch and a locksmith became cafés, a bookshop, two bakeries and a florist.

The effect on the flats above was bigger than anyone expected. Bedrooms on the street side, once the ones nobody wanted, are now as quiet as the courtyard rooms. People leave their balcony doors open in June. On a weekday evening the loudest sound is cutlery.

Prices followed. On the blocks between Aragó and Consell de Cent, flats on Enric Granados now sell for around 12% more per square metre than the same flats one street away on Aribau, which still carries the traffic down to the centre. Before the change the gap was small. It is the clearest example we know of a street, not a building, setting the price.

The light on Enric Granados

The street runs from north-west to south-east, like every Eixample street that climbs from the sea. Its two facades face north-east and south-west. The north-east side gets the morning, low and soft, until about eleven. The south-west side gets the afternoon and holds it until sunset, which in June is after nine.

The plane trees change the picture from May to October. Below the third floor, the afternoon side sits in green shade for most of the summer; above it, the sun reaches the balconies over the crowns. In winter the leaves fall and the lower floors get their light back, which is exactly when they want it.

For a buyer this means the floor matters as much as the side of the street. A first floor on the afternoon side is at its best in summer, cool and private behind the leaves. A fourth floor on the same side has sun on the balcony all year.

Living on it

The street suits people who want to walk everywhere. The Mercat del Ninot is a few minutes away, Rambla de Catalunya and Passeig de Gràcia are two and three blocks east, and the metro at Universitat or Diagonal is within ten minutes of any door.

It suits people less who need a car every day. Garages are few and expensive, and deliveries have a short morning window. We tell every buyer that before the first viewing, not after.

We have two homes on the street at the moment: a second-floor flat with two balconies over the cafés, and the whole top floor of the corner building at Consell de Cent.