If you have worked in the port of Valencia or in the offices related to it, JJ Dómine street sounds probably very familiar to you. JJ Dómine street is dedicated to a doctor and shipping businessman, born in Albacete in 1869. Jose Juan i Dómine studied medicine at the University of Valencia, specializing in respiratory but not only, he founded as well the “Valencian Post Office Company”. of Africa”, which years later would become the Transmediterránea Company, considered the first Spanish shipping company.
Together with other doctors of the time, he promoted a movement of hygienists, very concerned about the health of the Valencian population who at that time suffered major outbreaks of tuberculosis and other diseases of the respiratory system.
Over the years, JJ Dómine Street, with its beautiful arcades, became the balcony of the port, the maritime “golden mile” where the most renowned shipping companies of the time were located (Consigmar, Perez y Cia, etc.) and both, the legendary and the emerging freight forwarders and shipping offices, began to coexist on this street.
Customs agents, post offices, banks, bars, green areas and the Esparza Watch Shop.
Valencians of this area remember these golden times with nostalgia!
It is a peculiar street, supported by a regular row of columns that turn it into a covered street and, thanks to this condition, houses a lot of life, protecting passersby from the wind and rain, from the heat, with tables to have a drink and benches to sit on.
In the years of the Formula 1 championships from 2008 to 2012, the street suffered a boom in the prices of apartments and ground floors, which, once these celebrations were over, made the rents unsustainable and many companies fled the area, So the street was left with the people who lived there and a few businesses that little by little went away.
Now it seems that little by little it is getting some of its charm back and the commercial life of the area seems to be rebirthing, mostly in the form of restaurant chains.
Let’s hope this lasts for long! and although it is impossible to go back in time…
May it return again a dab of of its magic and essence!
