Madrid No Frills

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We’re running out of time to abolish Spain’s oppressive 2015 ‘Gag Law’

8 June 2020

One hot summer night in 2015, protestors gathered outside Congress, quietly sitting cross-legged on the pavement with blue gags tied around their mouths and with their hands behind their backs. Their timing was key, protesting until the clock struck midnight on Wednesday 1 July – the moment their actions would suddenly become unlawful.

History

El Alamín: The utopian ghost town on the outskirts of Madrid

22 May 2020

El Alamín, meaning 'the world' in Arabic, is an abandoned village on the outskirts of Madrid. A walk along the three streets of El Alamín reveals the world that a pro-Franco solider intended to build there in 1956. Juan Claudio Güell y Churruca, also known as the fourth Marquis de Comillas, fought on the national side during the Spanish Civil War. His militant legacy influenced the utilitarian architecture and planning of El Alamín: it's of a communist-style with a touch of Christianity, established to populate tobacco and cotton farmers.

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The Congolese seamstress fighting the coronavirus crisis with culture

15 May 2020

Becha opened up her Lavapiés tailor shop two years ago with a big ambition: to get Spanish people wearing African clothes. But what she never anticipated was that her workshop would become a small hub for African migrants and, further still: a food bank for the local community.

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Teatro del Barrio stages Lavapiés’ biggest Covid-19 relief effort yet

12 May 2020

The same spotlights that once shone bright on the faces of Madrid's rising stars now illuminate food parcels for victims of Lavapiés' Covid-19 crisis.

No Frills

The art of being a Madrid muse

8 May 2020

I don't use the word cool very often, but having your photographs turned into hand-drawn works of art? Now that's cool. Welcome to my first ever art collection of local artists' paintings and illustrations inspired by my photographs of Madrid.

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The night Madrileñes took back their city

3 May 2020

Saturday 8pm, May 2, 2020 will be a moment I remember for the rest of my life as the night Madrid took back its city for the first time… in decades.

Culture

Forget the Alhambra: This is Granada No Frills

30 April 2020

Forget the Alhambra. We’re here to explore those places that can’t be found in the guide books, those bars that can’t be found on pretty streets, and those fragments of history that haven’t been moved to a display cabinet but instead remain in situ for us all to see... if we know where to look.

History

The secret street stickers of Madrid’s people

29 April 2020

Madrid-based writer and artist Lauren Klarfeld combines her love for the streets of Madrid with the people who walk them, and in this article, she reveals her secret project, Last Words For The Road.

Culture

Captured: The neighbourhood spirit of the Rastro under lockdown

27 April 2020

I'd had a tip-off that the neighbours of Calle Carlos Arniches had taken lockdown solidarity to knew heights, so I decided to take a short stroll to see if it was true.

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Inside a migrant safe house on ‘the coolest street in the world’

24 April 2020

Lavapiés is a neighbourhood of extremes. It was recently crowned the coolest neighbourhood in the world by Time Out Magazine, but is also one of the most multicultural – and poor – in Spain.

No Frills

10 Madrid No Frills bar backgrounds for your Zoom get-togethers

20 April 2020

Over the weekend, I had an idea: to set my Zoom background to one of my favourite no-frills bars. When I joined my meeting, I was met with laughter and bewilderment, with one friend even asking how I got into a bar despite them being closed.

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The shrapnel-scarred bungalow challenging Spain’s civil war amnesia

19 April 2020

It is only by chance that a small bungalow in Madrid bearing the scars of Nazi shelling still survives. And it is only by pure coincidence that, just a decade ago, this fact came to light when photographer and archeologist Jose Latova stumbled across a photograph taken by the Hungarian war photographer Robert Capa. Its residents share their stories.

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Dragon heroes: the Lavapiés lockdown food bank helping vulnerable migrant families

8 April 2020

As Madrid remains the European epicentre of the coronavirus crisis, the city's most marginalised groups have been pushed even closer to the edge. Once dependent on charities and local organisations, many migrants are suddenly fending for themselves, but not if the Lavapiés Dragons have anything to do with it.

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Spain’s marginalised heroes fight against coronavirus – and racism

1 April 2020

While ordinary people with ordinary jobs occupy the headlines, there are people whose hero status has become their only form of survival.

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Portrait of an abuelo under lockdown

29 March 2020

At 94, Abuelo's physical health is enviable to many who are decades younger. These days, his biggest health worry is not coronavirus-related, but that "estas piernas se me están resistiendo".