Chamberí Though actually built in the late 19th century outside the old city walls, this formerly working-class zone is neither grungy nor gay like its southern neighbors but more low-keyed and upmarket. The focal point is the circular Plaza Olavide. This barrio offers an attractive selection of restaurants, bookshops, art galleries, and museums, such as the charming Museo Sorolla.
The neighborhood of Malasaña is one of the areas of Madrid where tourists could find the greatest variety of entertainment related choices such as pubs, discos, and cafes. This way, those visitors who wish to find exciting activities to do and party all night should go to Malasaña, where dancing, partying and having fun is always present. Malasaña is also characterized by offering a lively and clean appearance, in which modern life and constructions prevail in such a way that this neighborhood differs from other spots in Madrid in which antique buildings and history have a main role and are the main attraction.
Malasaña Centered around the famed (but innocuous) Plaza Dos de Mayo, this traditional barrio is named for a teenage seamstress, Manuela Malasaña, who became an unwitting martyr for the Spanish cause during the Peninsula War, when the scissors she was carrying for her work were interpreted as a lethal weapon by the occupying French forces and she was summarily tried and executed. Its grid system of narrow, crisscrossed, lanes is bordered by traditional (and now largely renovated) 19th-century buildings. Its many music bars are patronized at night by hard rock and grunge fans