Chueca: the squares and the market
Madrid's most confident barrio, a glass food market, and the design shops down to Fuencarral. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Plaza de Chueca
Come up from the Metro straight onto the square that gives the barrio its name and its nerve. Small, tiled, ringed with terraces. Take one, order a *caña* (a small draught beer), and watch the neighbourhood that made itself.

2. Mercado de San Antón
The glass-and-steel market a block away — fresh stalls on the ground floor, prepared food above, a rooftop terrace at the top. Go up to the roof for the view over the barrio even if you don't eat.

3. Calle del Almirante
The design-and-fashion street — independent boutiques, a couple of galleries, the quieter end of Chueca. Window-shop the lot; this is where the barrio keeps its taste.

4. Plaza del Rey (Casa de las Siete Chimeneas)
A calm square anchored by the 16th-century House of the Seven Chimneys, supposedly the most haunted house in Madrid. Stand and count the chimneys; the legend's better than the building.

5. Calle de Augusto Figueroa
The old shoe-shop street — outlet windows, sample sales, the smell of leather. Even if you buy nothing, it's the most Chueca street there is: practical, busy, unbothered.

6. Calle de Fuencarral (pedestrian end)
Finish on the pedestrianised shopping street that closes the barrio. Streetwear, sneakers, crowds. Follow it south and Gran Vía Metro is at the bottom.

Chueca: the squares and the market