What to see in Chamberí: the Sorolla Museum, Andén 0 and Madrid at its most traditional and stately

What you should not miss in Chamberí is the Museo Sorolla, the house and garden where Joaquín Sorolla lived and painted; Andén 0, the former Chamberí Metro station turned into a museum; the plaza de Olavide, the social heart of the neighbourhood; the Sala Canal de Isabel II, in a Neo-Mudéjar water tower; and tapas streets such as Ponzano. Chamberí has no great monuments, but it does have a genuine neighbourhood feel, stately architecture and charming museums away from the crowds.

Chamberí was born in the nineteenth-century ensanche (city expansion), north of the historic centre, and today it is one of the districts where Madrid residents most like to live. It is divided into neighbourhoods such as Gaztambide, Arapiles, Trafalgar, Almagro, Ríos Rosas and Vallehermoso, and it mixes elegant streets of mansions and embassies with more working-class areas of markets, bars and long-established shops.

Sorolla Museum

It is the neighbourhood's big visit. The house keeps the painter's studio, his drawing rooms and much of his furniture, together with a large collection of his work. The garden, designed by Sorolla himself, is a haven of fountains and tiles in the middle of the city.

Andén 0, the ghost station

The old Chamberí station, on line 1, fell out of use decades ago and was restored as a museum. It keeps the tiles, the advertising posters and the ticket offices from the early days of the Metro, and from the platforms you can watch today's trains pass through without stopping. A curious and very photogenic visit.

Sala Canal de Isabel II and Teatros del Canal

On calle Santa Engracia, a former elevated water tank in Neo-Mudéjar style hosts exhibitions, mainly of photography. Nearby, the Teatros del Canal are a benchmark for the city's performing arts programme.

Museo Geominero

On calle Ríos Rosas, this museum of minerals, rocks and fossils impresses as much for its collection as for the hall that houses it, with wooden display cases and iron galleries. If you like lesser-known museums like this one, we have a selection of Madrid's lesser-known museums.

The plaza de Olavide, surrounded by café terraces and with a children's play area, is where locals meet and the best place to sit and watch neighbourhood life go by. The Chamberí and Vallehermoso markets combine traditional stalls with tasting counters, and calle Ponzano has become one of the liveliest tapas areas in Madrid. To keep exploring, see our guide to Madrid's markets.

For architecture lovers, a walk along calle Almagro, Zurbano or Fortuny reveals mansions, period doorways and façades with Modernista and Neo-Mudéjar details.

Chamberí is very well connected: several Metro lines cross the district, with stations such as Iglesia, Quevedo, Canal, Ríos Rosas and Alonso Cano, and you can walk there from Malasaña, Chueca or Moncloa. If you are staying in this area and arriving by plane, a taxi saves you changes with your suitcases: Chamberí is inside the M-30, with a fixed fare of €33 to the airport to any terminal and the same amount on the way back.

You can book it from the taxi from Chamberí to the airport page, and we also pick up in neighbouring areas such as Malasaña or Moncloa. If you then want to keep discovering neighbourhoods with character, Salamanca is just on the other side of the paseo de la Castellana.