January 22, 2025

By R. PÉREZ BARREDO 

This legendary Soria road establishment that used to be a concert and party hall, before it became a hostess bar, is abandoned. It has been left exposed and vulnerable for vandals who once again have done their work.

The safe is hidden behind what used to be the stage. It shows signs that it has been tampered with. The image is a perfect metaphor for the location, which was once a place of splendor, and now resides in a state of darkness, destroying itself internally. It’s as if they are erasing the memories of its former glory every morning and night, until the only thing left of it is a skeleton, which still displays the unmistakable Castilian Far West profile. El Rancho Bill is a party hall and concert venue with a restaurant, which at the last moment became a brothel. It looms like a ghostly, decaying skeleton over the Soria Highway. The building was vandalized several years ago, and its owners blocked all entrances in order to keep graffiti artists from destroying it. They also wanted to stop curious passersby or people who were trampling the place after it had been abandoned.

It is as if the Bill Ranch was lost in between the trees and the highway, where cars and trucks hiss. Vandals have again attacked the Bill Ranch, opening a large hole through the wall. There’s not much left to loot, and it looks like a ruinous, recently-bombed structure. The two bars inside, where drinks used to be served, and the remnants of mirrors that once adorned its walls, remain as silent witnesses of what was. Glass, shards of mirror, cans of spray, plaster pieces, and other plasterboard are scattered on the floor. The ceilings have holes that show cables hanging from them like ropes.

The walls are covered with graffiti, including beer cans and broken bottles. Not a centimeter has been spared. It is dangerous to step on the wooden stage platform. In many spots, it has been sunken and is open with gaps. There are many varieties of dances from Maria Jimenez, who recently died, to Dyango, through the Barcelona Scala Ballet or Jose Luis Moreno, or Kiko Lagard, in the 1970s. Or Los Secretos or Illegales or Obus, or Niagara, already in 1980.

The bathrooms are all in the same condition: they’re ripped apart, broken, or shattered. Most of the mirrors in every corner are also in this state. The graffiti that was saved by those that love barbarism reads: Murder in the mirror. It is almost like an eerie scream from within the building itself. The former use of the place is barely evident. At the entrance to the dining area, there still remains a piece of handwritten paper that contains the meal times: from 2 to 3 thirty, and dinner from 8 to 10 thirty.

The kitchen is gone, as are all the utensils. Upstairs, the only human remains in these rooms is the mattress fillings. The closets have been emptied, and the only thing left is a jacuzzi. All that remains is rubble. There are open windows and frames, graffiti everywhere, graffiti on everything. Basement floor is accessible by wide, dark stairs. It has more rooms and corridors than the rest of the floors. The remains of a bar are still visible, as is what appears to have once been – or was ever – an artificial fountain. Unsurprisingly, a blackened drum indicates that there was once a bonfire. Little more. Rest is nothing but silence, ruin, and oblivion.

Exterior of enclosure is in the same condition as interior. It appears that Bill’s Ranch has become a garbage dump where all sorts of material are rotting: car wheels, mattresses, metal, wood, plastic, cardboard, bags, glass and tubes. The unmistakable shape of the enclosure is becoming more and more wilted. It seems to be alien. Rancho Bill has suffered his last defeat.

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