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“We have contributed to Madrid’s commercial success. We have paid for the building improvements out of our own pockets and now we’re being cast out,” the 45-year-old said, close to tears. “All our life is here.”

The store’s eight staff will be laid off. Montse Garcia, a 40-year-old single mother, has worked at Asi for 15 years. “The store is like a family and we’re heartbroken,” she said. “I try to be positive, but I’m being let go at a difficult age and with a son to look after.”

A few metres along the Gran Via, another famous store is shutting. The Camiseria Hernando, owned by 89-year-old Angel Garcia and which sells shirts, has been dressing Madrid’s eminent families for 150 years.

The Café Central, a short walk from the toy store, has been one of Madrid’s best-known jazz venues for the past 35 years. With three dozen staff, it operates as a café during the day and a small concert hall at night. It has a small but loyal number of customers. Gerardo Perez, its 62-year-old manager, is trying to extend the rental contract for five years. The rent is a little more than €5,000 (US$6,000) a month — but the going rate in the area is more than double that.

Mr. Perez says he understands the building owners want to earn more money from the place. “But if the Central disappears, I very much doubt anyone will want to open a jazz club here. It will be gone forever,” he said.

Café Galdos is another Madrid landmark with an uncertain future. Actors, intellectuals and politicians have long been regular customers of the bar located in a street behind Spain’s Parliament.

Ramiro Gonzalez, given a month to move out, says he will try and move the business, and his eight staff, to nearby premises. But he won’t be able to take the bar’s charming high ceilings and spectacular marble bar. “I understand that times are changing, but it’s a shame,” Mr. Gonzalez said. “Places like this are part of our culture, they have a mythical status.”