Calle de Barrilero

The cooper was the craftsman who built barrels: he fitted the wooden staves, bent them over fire and bound them with hoops so they could hold wine, oil or salted goods without losing a drop. For centuries his workshop was a fixture in any city that traded in liquids. This street’s name comes from that work, not from a person. Barrilero is one of the handful of streets that frame the Adelfas neighbourhood, at the southwestern edge of Retiro, where the low houses pressed up against the railway tracks. It shares its surroundings with Seco, El Cafeto and Játiva, a layout of modest homes that grew up beside the trains. Why this particular trade was chosen has not been documented. The sector bordering the M-30 ring road was popularly known as Las Californias, a name the district recovered a few years ago for a public space. Anyone walking along Barrilero today treads one of those short streets that still ring with the workshop, with bent wood and iron hoops tightening the stave.