Malasaña is where Madrid decided what it would be after Franco died. The movida — the late-1970s explosion of music, film and nightlife — happened on these streets, and the quarter still trades on that energy, though now it's record shops and vintage rails rather than punk venues. Under three kilometres of tight grid, best walked in the late afternoon as the bars warm up.
Start on Plaza del Dos de Mayo, the square named for the 1808 uprising and reclaimed by the movida generation as its open-air living room. From there take Calle de la Palma east, then turn down Calle Velarde for the record shops and Calle del Espíritu Santo for the vintage rails — the two streets that do the neighbourhood's shopping. Pause at the old painted pharmacy on Calle de San Andrés, one of the tiled shopfronts Malasaña refused to lose.
End at the Mercado de San Ildefonso on Fuencarral, three floors of food stalls and a rooftop. Order a vermut, take it upstairs, and let the afternoon go. Bilbao Metro is two minutes north.
