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It is an urban oasis in the heart of Barcelona’s Eixample, at Consell de Cent, 159, which we show today in La Vanguardia’s Readers’ Photos. It is a unique inner block, known for the history of the former Lehmann Spielzeuge doll and tin toy factory.
It is accessed through a passageway that leads to one of the most idyllic corners of Barcelona. Today, this charmingly inhospitable place is still largely unknown.
In recent years the space has been occupied with around twenty studios-workshops with graphic designers, photographers, artists, art galleries, ceramists, interior designers, architects, people from entertainment, carpenters… giving off a bohemian air, similar to to other charming places that we can find in cities like Paris, Florence or Berlin.
It all started when the newlyweds Max Lehmann and Ella Sontheimer spent their honeymoon in Barcelona in 1893 and fell in love with this city. That same year they installed one of their factories inside the Nova Esquerra de l’Eixample block.
Lehmann Spielzeuge dedicated itself to making dolls with porcelain heads and later tin toys (in 1920 it manufactured 80 different models). In 1917, they also began to manufacture stuffed animals. Spain’s neutrality in the First World War led to concentration of production in Barcelona.
The Lehmanns were Jewish and the rise of Nazism put an end to the business, although part of the family was able to flee to America. Others were deported and murdered in Auschwitz. The Spanish civil war ended the Barcelona factory.
The premises remained unchanged but gradually began to be occupied by new tenants with small businesses, such as a printing press, a mechanical workshop, a carpentry shop, a metal shop… until reaching our days with this bohemian air and periodically organizing markets and activities. revitalization of this unique oasis of a city.
