Círculo Mercantil

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Cultural spaces · Subcategory: Institutions · Year: 1879

The Círculo Mercantil (1879) emerged with the rise of the Free Ports (1852) and in the heat of the growing commercial activity of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and its Port. 

The initiative came from a group of businesspeople in Commerce who saw the need to institutionally anticipate the recent economic dynamism, against the always slow official bureaucracy: Bernardo de la Torre, Tomás Miller and Juan Rodríguez Quegles, banker, merchant and politician. 

The Círculo Mercantil contributed to various works related to its aims: the most important being the construction of the new Puerto de la Luz, since it was the first presidents of the institution (Bernardo de la Torre and Juan Ripoche) who managed to have the English company Swanston build the project. With its support, the establishment of the Escuela Superior de Comercio, the opening of the Banco de España and the creation of the Cámara de Comercio in 1901 were also achieved; and the Círculo worked on the initiative to build the Palacio Militar opposite Parque San Telmo. 

At the same time, the cultural and recreational activities of the Círculo Mercantil managed to energise the cultural and social life of the city. The institution published a magazine, El Órgano del Círculo Mercantil , from 1886; and organised (and organises) art exhibitions, lectures, concerts and social events, as well as getting involved in some publications. 

The Círculo Mercantil had its headquarters in a beautiful gardened building on the capital’s San Bernardo street, right in the heart of the commercial Triana. It continued there, although that beautiful building has passed into history, replaced by a modern and characterless building that reserves its main floor for the Institution’s premises. It also occupied the building of the current Biblioteca Insular de Gran Canaria.

In 2021 the entity was dissolved due to its precarious financial situation.

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