Living in Lista, Madrid

Lista is the smallest of the six barrios of Distrito de Salamanca, a triangle of about 0.52 km2 bounded by Calle del Príncipe de Vergara to the west, Calle de Don Ramón de la Cruz to the south and the diagonal of Calle de Francisco Silvela to the northeast, with its apex on Calle de María de Molina. It takes its name from Alberto Lista, who gave his name to the street that crosses it and that has been called Calle de José Ortega y Gasset since 1955.

What it is

Salamanca without the shop windows. This is the ensanche grid at its most regular, straight streets and large rectangular blocks of five to eight floors, interrupted only where the Francisco Silvela diagonal slices the northeastern corner off and leaves the barrio its triangular shape. Two things break the pattern. The Hospital Universitario de La Princesa, on Calle de Diego de León, has been one of the city's main hospitals since 1955 and gives the barrio a steady population of medical staff. And on Calle del General Díaz Porlier, alongside surviving low houses from the beginning of the twentieth century, stands the building that served as the Cárcel de Porlier during and after the Civil War and was later converted into a school. Note the two levels of naming: Salamanca in everyday speech is the district, and Lista is one of the six barrios inside it, with Recoletos, Goya, Castellana, Fuente del Berro and Guindalera.

Who lives here

Professional Madrid, a step below the Castellana and Recoletos end of the district in both age and price. Established families in large flats, doctors and nurses from La Princesa, office workers who want to walk to Serrano or take one train to anywhere. Because the flats are slightly smaller than in the barrios to the west and the buildings slightly plainer, there are more renters here and a real, if small, supply of shared flats, mostly in old apartments split into three or four bedrooms. It is one of the more realistic entry points into the Salamanca district.

What it's like during the day

Calm, residential and easy to walk. The commercial life runs along Ortega y Gasset, Calle del General Pardiñas and Calle del Conde de Peñalver, with the ordinary mix of pharmacies, bakeries, hairdressers and small clothing shops rather than the luxury retail further south. Francisco Silvela and Príncipe de Vergara carry heavy traffic on two of the three sides, so the middle of the triangle, around Padilla, Maldonado and Alcántara, is much quieter than the edges. The Plaza del Marqués de Salamanca, on the boundary with Castellana, is the nearest thing to a square.

What it's like in the evening

Grown-up and early. Restaurants and terraces along Ortega y Gasset, General Pardiñas and Juan Bravo fill from nine, the crowd is local and largely residential, and there is no club scene at all. What noise there is comes from a handful of streets rather than from the barrio as a whole, and it does not last past one. For a real night out you walk south into Goya and Recoletos, or take the metro west into Chueca and Malasaña.

Getting around

The strongest argument for the barrio. For half a square kilometre it is served by an unusual number of lines: Lista, on line 4, sits under Conde de Peñalver in the middle; Diego de León, on the northern edge, combines lines 4, 5 and 6 under Francisco Silvela; Núñez de Balboa, on the western side, adds lines 5 and 9; Avenida de América, at the northern apex, brings lines 4, 6, 7 and 9 together with a coach station; and Manuel Becerra, just past the southeastern corner, adds lines 2 and 6. That is six of the network's lines within a short walk of almost any address here. There is no Cercanías station in the barrio; Recoletos and Nuevos Ministerios are the nearest, both one metro ride away. The Retiro is about twenty minutes on foot to the south.

Eating and shopping

Everyday and unglamorous, which suits most people. Supermarkets and food shops are spread along Ortega y Gasset, General Pardiñas and Don Ramón de la Cruz. There is no traditional market inside the barrio: the Mercado de Diego de León is a couple of blocks north in Castellana, and the Mercado de la Paz, the best in the district, is a ten-minute walk south in Goya. Restaurants run from neighbourhood menú del día places to expensive Salamanca dining, and the cheap end thins out quickly as you move west.

When NOT to pick it

If you need green space or you are on a tight budget. Lista has essentially no parks, only a single small garden, and the surrounding barrios are no better, so daily running or a dog means walking to the Retiro or to the Quinta de la Fuente del Berro. Rents are Salamanca rents even if they undercut Castellana, the buildings are functional rather than beautiful, and two of the three boundaries are busy roads. It is the right choice if you want a well-connected, quiet, central address in the Salamanca district and would rather spend your money on the location than on the view; the wrong one if you want a park, a market at the corner or a cheap room, and for those you should look east across Francisco Silvela to Guindalera, which is the affordable barrio of this district, southeast to Fuente del Berro for the park, or west into Chamberí at Trafalgar and Ríos Rosas for the same connections with more street life.