Today we are going to dedicate this post to speak about the two Hipster neighbourhoods both in London and Madrid. When we speak about hipsters we think about long beards, specs and vintage clothes. Nowadays the hipster style is a whole lifestyle incorporated into neighbourhoods. Clothes, barbershops, bars, restaurants and music define this wave that inhabit main neighbourhoods Brick Lane in London and Malasaña in Madrid.  

If we type the word hipster in Google most of the definitions would take us to some common points. It can be defined as urban tribe with some specific lifestyle points featured around ‘vintage’ fashion. It could be said that it is a lifestyle where old remains new.  

London

Brick Lane is well known in London as one of the most vibrant and cool areas in the city. Its main feature is the street market, taken place every Sunday.  It is one of those street marke

ts where anything is eventful. Even going every Sunday, each day would be different, a new street artist would be painting grafitti or would be playing music. It is, without doubt, the best place for finding the desirable vintage clothes that would make your outfit trendy and edgy.

Brick Lane has that vibrant atmosphere where the mix of cultures is prominent; you can try so many different types of food coming from diverse countries in one place. Food, music and diverse vintage and second hand clothes, you need nothing else to feel like a real Londoner. Sadly, good weather is not overly common in London most of the time so if you are lucky enough to have a sunny day you will spend one of your best days in London here.  

Speaking about good weather, a city that really knows what is that is Madrid. From the UK to Spain following the hipster waves we would arrive to Malasaña, a central neighbourhood in Madrid. With a sunshine on most of the days of the year, to spend a Sunday in Malasaña is one of my favourite plans.

With a really high concentration of bars and restaurants, this bit of Madrid is the best place to feel the real “aperitivo” moment. Most of the bars in the area are quite small but that is not a problem when no one needs to or, actually wants to stay inside having a beer. The tables and chairs outside the main doors create terrazas where to can enjoy beers and wines with some tapas while having some sun. You can be sure that won´t need to have lunch when get home, you will be full with the tapas that the bars offers with your beers or drinks.

A real madrileño never cooks anything for lunch because they already know they won’t be home before 5pm. We can say that the real hipster wave in Madrid is based in food and old style bars. Think about the ones that our grandparents used to enjoy, and now we see as the trendiest place.

Nacho Martín

Spanish Express Blogger

Want to read more articles? Find them all here!