Main Street

Main Street has changed - and for the better!

Oh boy – what a transformation. Gibraltar’s Main Street has changed, and for the better.  There was a time, not so long back, when four kinds of shop would dominate Gibraltar’s principal shopping street: cheap booze and cigarette shops, embroidered tablecloth shops, camera and walkman shops, plus the obligatory tacky gift shops selling fridge magnets in the shape of the Rock, toy apes, etc.  Add to this grim scenario the odd pub or café sheltering three-sheets-to-the-wind pale-looking Guiris on a day trip from the Costa del Sol.  Take it or leave it was the attitude.  And most people did leave it…..with a bad impression.

But now, hey!  They’ve pedestrianised it in a way that gives you a chance to look around and see the old colonial buildings that make up Gibraltar’s Main Street, or Calle Real as the locals call it.  In step with the revival and sprucing up of Casemates Square, Main Street has reinvented itself as a stylish shoppers paradise of fashionable, high quality retail outlets that reflect the Rock’s new role as a top cruiseboat destination and playground of the wealthy.  Now, café culture reigns supreme, so Main Street is once again a place to relax, see and be seen.

You’ll see all of vibrant Gibraltarian life here, in just this one street.  Llanitos, Jews, Arabs, Brits, Spaniards, tourists, all mixed together. That’s how it used to be in the past and, thanks to the Gibraltar Government, this is how it is from now on. Start at the Casemates end and work your way slowly along, past the old Registry Office with its fine gardens where John Lennon married Yoko Ono in 1969 – and where I was married too, for that matter. Take in the Piazza, maybe for refreshments and then to the Cathedral of St.Mary the Crowned (which used to be a mosque during the Muslim occupation) before heading on towards the Governer’s office, known as the Convent and beyond.  Viva la Calle Real!