List of street and locations:
C/ Arenal : Exit Puerta del Sol. Metro Sol.
C/ Carretas : Exit Puerta del Sol. Metro Sol.
C/ Gran Vía : Downtown. Metro Gran Vía.
C/ Manuela Malasaña : Exit la Glorieta de Bilbao. Metro Bilbao.
C/ Montera : Exit Puerta del Sol. Metro Sol.
Plaza de Carros : Adjacent to Pl. San Andrés, at the end of Cava Baja. Metro Tirso de Molina.
Plaza de la Cebada : Halfway down C/ Toledo. Metro Tirso de Molina.
Plaza del 2 de Mayo : Taken from Glorieta de Bilbao, C/ Manuela Malasaña and going down C/ Ruiz.
Plaza Lavapiés : Embajadores area. Metro Lavapiés.
Plaza Puerta Cerrada : At the end of C/ Cuchilleros. Metro Tirso de Molina.
Ribera de Curtidores : Go from Plaza del Cascorro to C/ Ronda de Toledo. Metro La Latina.

CALLE ARENAL

The name of this street goes back to 1656, when Madrid bought terrain to widen this street that ran from the passage Puente de San Gines to the entrance of the former Hileras street.

It adopted the name of Arenal due to the fact that it was a sandy area (arena =sand).

CARRETAS

This street conserves the same name from the 16th C. The tradition tells that, during the uprising of the Comunidades de Castilla, a blockade was built here by using carretas or carts, behind which the rioters defended themselves. Seeing themselves as defeated, they stacked the ill people from the neighboring San Ricardo hospital inside the carts. The troops of Carlos V had to come to an agreement and in this way the Comuneros of Madrid remained free.

GRAN VIA

La Gran Vía

Nobody would suppose, upon talking about the Gran Via, that the origin of the name did not come from the fact that it was one of the largest roads in the city (Gran via literally means 'large road'), but rather that the name itself comes from a criticism. In 1862, it was discussed for the first time the creation of a passageway that united Alcala Street with Plaza de España. the construction of the street meant the disappearance of 14 streets and the demolition of more than 13 houses. So, in 1886, jokes and criticisms appeared in a magazine of Madrid that called the construction of the road "Gran Via"; sarcastic comments about the project were heard constantly.

It was not until 1910 that Alfonso XIII took a mason's hammer to the first of the houses that were to be destroyed, initiating the project that had never been started. The streets were designed with the newest architectural styles of the moment. In fact, the style of the first buildings on the Gran Via are clearly American, similar to those of Chicago.

MANUELA MALASAÑA

This is a curious case of a historical error. The street receives the name of Manuela Malasaña, whom legend treats as a heroine that fought along with her father in defense of the Monteleon Artillery Park on 2 May, 1808. However, the reality, that is now known, is very different: this young woman of Madrid, embroiderer by profession, was returning home when some French soldiers stopped and searched her. Among her tools of labor, they found some scissors and considered them a weapon. Before prohibition to carry arms, this 17-year-old young lady was shot to death.

MONTERA

There are two versions of the origin of the name of this street.

Right around where this street lies today, there was once a hill where the wife of a huntsman of King Felipe II lived. The woman possessed such beauty that, known by all of its inhabitants of the court, her memory was left perpetually on the street where she once had lived.

Another version says that the name is a corruption of the word Monteri'a or hunting. This was the place where the knights went out to go hunting.

PLAZA DE CARROS

This plaza, in which today we find a park, was in other times, a carro or cart stop. Also, from ancient times, this is where the carts were offered for rental for transport of materials. Even in 1930, carts could be seen filling the plaza.

PLAZA DEL DOS DE MAYO

If today we decide to visit the Plaza de Dos de Mayo (2nd of May), we find just another plaza with a statue that we do not know what it is of, and a kind of brick arch, that may even seem to us in poor taste, because of its lack of beauty. To whom did it occur to put this vulgarity of brick in the middle of the plaza?

If we start to think, we can come to relate the name of the plaza with the year 1808. There is also a painting, by Goya, that somehow reminds us of a very nearby date: Los fusilamentos del 3 de Mayo (The Shootings of May 3rd).

Let's try to go back in time. We are in Madrid, May 2nd, 1808. The city's atmosphere is charged, but it is not the climate, but rather a distrust and suppressed hate. The city is occupied by French troops and the royal family has fled, abandoning its people. The people of Madrid decide to rise up en masse before the Royal Palace, and this uprising runs like gunpowder through the streets of the city. In the North, a fragile brick door guards the estate of Monteleon Palace, at that time turned into an Artillery Park. There the people of Madrid, seeking arms, and defending them, died at the hands of French troops. The park also fell. In 1869, the barracks were torn down, thereby creating several streets and the Plaza de Dos de Mayo, in memory to those that fell in 1808. The door of Monteleon Palace remained in its place, becoming the monument in the center of the plaza, symbolizing the valor of the people of Madrid in the commemorative archway.

PLAZA LAVAPIES

We must remember that Madrid is a place where many peoples and cultures are found. The Jewish population has been a part of it during much of the city's history. This is probably the origin of the Plaza de Lavapies ("Footwashing Square"). It is supposed that the name comes from a fountain used by the Jewish population of the neighborhood for the ablution of the lower extremities. If that was the purpose of the fountain, and that is not certain, what we can assure is that, until the 19th C., the plaza was endowed with a fountain where neighbors and water carriers congregated.

PLAZA PUERTA CERRADA

It is strange to encounter a plaza ("Closed Door Square") whose name describes a door that we cannot see. On this site there was a door that gave access to the walled city of Madrid. Through it, a dark passage opened up in which evil-doers and bandits frequented. When this passage became at once a danger and a possible access for those same dangers, it was decided to close the door. It was closed for a long time, but as the city grew, the city was torn down, along with its Puerta Cerrada. That happened in 1569.

RIBERA DE CURTIDORES

The Ribera de Curtidores or Tanner's Shore is, today, the street known as home every Sunday to the finest market in Madrid: el Rastro. Along where today flow streams of people every Sunday, once flowed a creek tinted red by the blood of beheaded beasts. In this area, the tanners gathered to do their work and at the same time sell their merchandise. The street has always been a place of sales and commerce, maintaining its same function to our times.