Madrid No Frills

History

Spain’s vanishing street typography is trending on Instagram

11 April 2019

I've spotted a growing movement on Instagram, and I seem to be part of it. Welcome to the Spanish community of retro typography hunters, who are acting fast to preserve Spain's unlikely works of street art.

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The story of the little bookstore that helped save Mercado San Fernando

8 April 2019

Five years ago, Mercado San Fernando was close to giving up the ghost, but this little bookstore arrived just in time. Now, the market is rampacked with locals enjoying craft beers, ramen and vegan food, but has it gone too far?

Haunting exhibition of the places Madrid has lost

3 April 2019

Welcome to the untimely ossuary of Madrid's extinct shops, bars and restaurants – an emotive collection of defunct signage from Madrid's long-lost traditional businesses.

History

Map of bombed Madrid reveals a city secretly scarred

26 March 2019

Enrique Bordes and Luis de Sobrón, creators of the map Madrid Bombardeado 1936-1939, are part of a growing movement to expose the lost stories of the Spanish Civil War. They're tracking down our city's hidden wounds and opening them back up in the hope that by redressing them properly, they can finally heal.

Culture

Behind the gates of Madrid’s secret, historical gardens

21 March 2019

Our city gardens are something to be treasured dearly, with so many being lost over the years. Hundreds of grassy nooks and micro orchards have become victim to our ever-expanding metropolis, leaving those that remain with an almost mythical status.

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The death of Mame Mbaye and the Lavapiés riots – one year on

15 March 2019

I'm getting used to the sound of hovering helicopters but what can I expect, living in Lavapiés? I live in a barrio so routinely pushed to the edge that, every now and then, the pressure becomes too much and its people crack.

Relive the old Vallecas in Bar Eutiquio

23 February 2019

Vallecas might feel like the Madrid of long-ago, but for Constantino Carral Sánchez, it’s changed a lot.

From Mauritania to Lavapiés: meet Usman, the alternative vegetable farmer

15 February 2019

Usman is a Mauritanian organic vegetable farmer with an allotment in the Jarama valley – a beautiful bit of local countryside with clay, terracotta soil, which I know well because I find it in the nooks of my freshly picked purple carrots.

Culture

Welcome to Madrid’s underground music scene

6 February 2019

What's popular on the Spanish radio is a world away from what's cooking beneath the surface. Funk, flamenco, Latin jazz and trap have all leapt into the limelight, but there's a part of Madrid's music scene that stubbornly resists going mainstream, even if it might be growing.

Culture

Miss Beige: “I dare to be who I am”

1 February 2019

Meet Miss Beige, a feminist, anarchist madrileña after all our hearts. She's a common girl living in her own beige world, and she'll spit pipas at anyone who tells her to smile.

History

Artist brings the Spanish Civil War back to the streets of Madrid

24 January 2019

Hell's bitter winds have suddenly reversed and the darkest visions of the Spanish Civil War have drifted back onto the streets of Madrid. And for this, we can thank Chicago-born artist Sebastian Maharg, who has made it possible for us to remember what many of us never even saw.

Housing

Madrid’s anti-eviction warriors

18 January 2019

I’d heard on the radio that there was going to be an eviction at 11 am, just a five-minute walk from where I lived. I turned on TeleMadrid and their cameras were already there. I put on my coat, grabbed my camera and said to my other half, “look out for me on the TV”.

Culture

Latest obsession: confessionals

11 January 2019

I've got a confession to make: I'm a little bit obsessed with confessionals. I suspect this might be one of the weirdest things a priest could ever be told through a latticed window, but although I have no intention of repenting my curiosity-related sins, an explanation might be helpful…

Faro Vallecano: a beautiful, no-frills diner in Vallecas

3 January 2019

The sun pours through the smokey windows of this upstairs diner and is intercepted by half a dozen coconut palms, casting exotic shadows on the terrazzo floor. Everything – and I mean everything – is a shade of brown, as it has been since its last refurb a few decades ago.

Around the world in 10 Embajadores eateries

18 December 2018

Emerge from Lavapiés’ metro into the Mediterranean Maghreb. Meander through its narrow, winding streets lined with candy-coloured facades and Juliette balconies, and catch a glimpse of the Middle East and Africa, but also Asia, Latin America and of course, Madrid.