Lavapiés: the steep multicultural quarter
The corralas, an arts centre in an old tobacco factory, and the city's most international streets. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. Calle de Argumosa
Start on the leafy, low-rise street the locals call the quarter's living room — *terrazas* spilling off both pavements under the plane trees. Have a coffee before you drop downhill; you're at the top of Lavapiés here, and everything from now is a descent.

2. Plaza de Lavapiés
The triangular square at the centre of it all, ringed by the Teatro Valle-Inclán and shops with signs in half a dozen scripts. The neighbourhood's mix — Madrileño, South Asian, North African, Latin American — is plainest right here. Sit on the edge of the square and watch it for a while.

3. Calle del Avapiés corralas
Look for the surviving *corralas* — the galleried tenement blocks with open-air balconies running round an inner courtyard, the classic Madrid working-class housing. The best-restored one is on Calle Mesón de Paredes. Stand in the street and look up at the wooden galleries.

4. Calle del Doctor Fourquet
The gallery street — a run of contemporary art spaces in old ground-floor units, walls between them carrying some of the city's better murals. Wander it slowly; whether the galleries are open or not, the street itself is the exhibit.

5. La Tabacalera
The vast former tobacco factory, now a self-managed arts and social centre — courtyards of murals, studios, gigs, a fierce DIY spirit. Opening hours are irregular and that's part of it; if the doors are open, go in. If not, the street art on the Embajadores side is reward enough.

6. Calle de Embajadores
Finish on the long descending street that gives the quarter its southern edge — *teterías* (tea houses), Senegalese and Bangladeshi kitchens, fruit shops open late. Eat something here before the Metro; this is the most genuinely international meal in central Madrid.

Lavapiés: the steep multicultural quarter