‘It feels like an independent republic’: Madrid’s new arty barrio of Carabanchel

This traditional neighbourhood ‘across the river’ is where the city’s creatives are heading as the centre heats up Madrid’s current boomtown dynamics are driving the city centre way upmarket, pushing the average punter to outer barrios in search of cheaper rent. As seen in New York and elsewhere, the creative class is moving too – crossing the River Manzanares to open studios in the former factories and metalworks of Carabanchel. Now the city’s most populous district, this used to be a separa...

By Stephen Phelan