Living in Guindalera, Madrid

Guindalera, usually called La Guindalera, is a barrio of Distrito de Salamanca bounded by Avenida de América to the north, Calle de Francisco Silvela to the west, Calle de Alcalá to the south and the M-30, here the Avenida de la Paz, to the east. At about 1.59 km2 it is the largest of the six Salamanca barrios, twice the size of Goya or Castellana, and the one where rooms cost least.

What it is

The part of the district that was never part of the plan. Guindalera began to fill in the middle of the nineteenth century as a satellite settlement outside the orthogonal ensanche, on market-garden land watered by the canalillo, the channel carrying surplus water from the Canal de Isabel II. The name most likely comes from a well-known orchard of guindos, sour cherry trees, fed by the Abroñigal stream that once ran where the M-30 runs now. That origin explains the layout: instead of one grid there are three barrios in one. The oldest layer, built between 1874 and 1906, is the Colonia del Madrid Moderno, promoted in 1888 by Mariano Santos Pinela as a hundred or so terraced villas for the Madrid bourgeoisie, neomudéjar at first under the architect Julián Marín and later with modernista touches on Calle de Roma; a good part of it has been rebuilt, but the low houses that survive are unlike anything else in the district. The second layer is the Parque de las Avenidas, begun in 1956 in the Abroñigal valley south of Avenida de América: some forty hectares and around three thousand flats built between 1957 and 1970 around Avenida de Bruselas, in exposed-brick blocks of five to ten floors with deep terraces, designed by Francisco Echenique Gómez and Luis Calvo Huedo. The third is the ordinary ensanche-scale housing along Francisco Silvela and Alcalá. And on the southeastern corner, against the M-30, stands the Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas, which despite its name belongs to this barrio and not to Ventas, which is on the other side of the motorway.

Who lives here

The most mixed population in the Salamanca district by a wide margin. Older Madrid families who bought in the Parque de las Avenidas when it was new, professionals priced out of Goya and Lista, and enough students and young sharers to make flatshares straightforward to find. Rooms here are the cheapest in the district and among the better value inside the M-30 for the transport you get.

What it's like during the day

Ordinary, busy, unpretentious. The commercial life is spread rather than concentrated: shops along Cartagena, Martínez Izquierdo, Avenida de los Toreros and the streets around the market, with supermarkets everywhere. Traffic runs on the four boundaries and on Avenida de América, which cuts the top of the barrio. There is real green space, which is rare on this side of the city: the Parque de Breogán along the M-30, the gardens of the Parque de las Avenidas between the blocks, and the Jardines de Eva Duarte de Perón at the Manuel Becerra end.

What it's like in the evening

Neighbourhood rather than nightlife. Bars and terraces on Cartagena, Avenida de los Toreros and around Plaza de Basilea fill with locals; the bullring brings a large and noisy crowd to the Alcalá corner on fight days and empties again afterwards. It is a barrio where you can be out until late without anyone treating it as a night out. For clubs and late bars you take the metro west into the centre.

Getting around

Five stations, six lines, all within the barrio or on its edge. Manuel Becerra, at the southwestern corner, has lines 2 and 6. Ventas, on Calle de Alcalá beside the bullring, has lines 2 and 5, and despite its name it stands in this barrio. Parque de las Avenidas, under Avenida de Bruselas, is on line 7, as is Cartagena on Avenida de América. Diego de León, on Francisco Silvela, adds lines 4, 5 and 6, and Avenida de América at the northwestern corner brings together lines 4, 6, 7 and 9 with the intercity coach station. There is no Cercanías station in the barrio despite its size; the nearest platforms are Nuevos Ministerios and Méndez Álvaro, both reachable on line 6.

Eating and shopping

The Mercado de la Guindalera, on Calle de Eraso, is the traditional market, smaller and plainer than the ones in the western half of the district and considerably cheaper. Everyday shopping is easy and spread across the barrio rather than confined to one street. Eating out is genuinely affordable by Salamanca standards, with a long run of neighbourhood restaurants and tapas bars around the bullring and along Cartagena and Avenida de los Toreros.

When NOT to pick it

If you want the Salamanca district you have read about. This is not that: the buildings are mostly post-war, several streets are dominated by the M-30 and its noise, and the barrio has no monumental core. It is also large and uneven, so the address matters more than the barrio name, and the walk from the eastern edge to a metro station can be a real ten to fifteen minutes. It is the right choice if you want a well-connected central-east address with parks, a market and prices well below the rest of the district; the wrong one if you want elegance, quiet or a short walk to the historic centre, and for those you should look west across Francisco Silvela to Lista and Goya for the ensanche proper, south across Alcalá to Fuente del Berro for the Quinta park and quieter streets, or northwest to Prosperidad if you want the same value with a different set of lines.