Chamberí: the elegant grid
Plaza de Olavide, a ghost Metro station frozen in 1966, and the vermut bars of residential Madrid. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Plaza de Olavide
Start on the octagonal square at the heart of Chamberí, ringed with terraces and shaded by trees. This is residential Madrid's living room — order a coffee, take a bench, and watch the neighbourhood do its errands.

2. Andén 0 — Estación de Chamberí
The ghost Metro station, closed in 1966 and left untouched, now a small museum you can look into from the street or visit inside. Original tilework and old adverts frozen mid-century. Limited opening days; check before relying on it.

3. Calle de Fuencarral (Chamberí stretch)
The neighbourhood's commercial street above Glorieta de Bilbao — old shopfronts, bakeries, the unflashy Madrid that lives here rather than visits. Walk a block or two; it's the texture between the squares.

4. Sorolla museum edge (Paseo del General Martínez Campos)
The painter Joaquín Sorolla's house and garden museum sits at the eastern edge of Chamberí. You don't have to go in for this walk, but the garden wall and the tree-lined paseo are worth the detour east.

5. Calle de Trafalgar / a vermut bar
Find one of the old taberna-style bars on the residential streets for a *vermut* (chilled fortified wine, the Madrid aperitif) on tap and a small plate. Late morning is the right time; this is what Chamberí does on a Saturday.

6. Glorieta de Quevedo
End at the round junction at the western edge, named for the Golden Age satirist. The Metro is here, and you've crossed the calmest, most lived-in grid in central Madrid.

Chamberí: the elegant grid