Carabanchel is the part of Madrid that the city spent decades looking down on and is now quietly proud of. A vast working barrio south of the river, it has the cheap industrial space that art always follows — and over the last decade the studios and project rooms have multiplied here until Carabanchel became the answer to "where's the scene now?" But it is still, first, a neighbourhood: high streets, balconies, families on the hill.
Start among the converted warehouses west of the metro, where open-studio weekends are the way in — check what's on before you travel. Then down to Calle de General Ricardos, the working high street the artists moved beside rather than over.
Climb the Parque de la Emperatriz María de Austria, terraced and shaded, for the long view back toward the city — a bench at the top earns the climb. Drift past the old Vista Alegre estate walls, grand stone marooned in ordinary streets, and the late-light side lanes off them. End at a pavement table near Vista Alegre with a horchata (a chilled tiger-nut drink) before Line 5 carries you back.
