It is in the Chamartín neighborhood, but it may not be the idea that you have about this area. Because what we say are almost “village” houses, very similar, with their air of naive antiquity. Colonia Obrera La Socialistathey tell him.
They say that when the colony arose that was not even Madrid. Year 1919, and Chamartín de la Rosa It had an independent municipality, because until the middle of the century the Villa y Corte did not engulf the adlaters (they say that the dictator did make an effort, because Barcelona was not the first city in terms of neighbors… but who knows). Then, in the last moments of the late Restoration, they built one hundred and sixteen homes. Promoted by the Workers’ Cooperative for the Acquisition of Cheap Housing, you had to be registered with Casa del Pueblo to take part. Send of Pablo Iglesias (the old one) and Jaime Vera. You see, all very progressive…
All of this was inspired by the British Garden Cities, that invention that had Ebenezer Howard to improve conditions and dignify the proletarian. In Madrid they did the same with this Colonia La Socialista, with Primo de Rivera, with La Prosperidad. It was, the place of all, between Ventorro del Chaleco, Ciudad Lineal promenade and the limits with that municipality of Chamartín.
“It was during the pandemic,” Pedro tells me, “everyone went out to play sports, and I went on a bike, a short route south of Madrid, through the Colonia de Manzanares, the Moscardó neighborhood and the Colonia de la Prensa. With my jersey, my culottemy helmet, and stopping with neighbors, they told me their story… I thought that if dressed like that they talk… when it comes normal I will get information. So I proposed a series of articles about Madrid colonies to The Country“Peter is Pedro Zuazuaauthor of (highly recommended) Urban utopias. 44 walks through the neighborhoods of Madridwhich has just been published by Editorial Altamarea with photographs by David Expósito. All these matters are told there, and there comes, of course, that Colonia La Socialista.
And it continues. “As a result of these reports, people have written to me from Asturias, where I’m from, to ask me when it’s time there. You keep looking and you end up seeing, in many places, these types of colonies. They emerge under the protection of the Cheap Houses Law, of 1921, and sought to dignify the living conditions of the proletarian classes. He thinks that at that time, to note, tuberculosis had a very large impact on society, and in these houses people had a very high incidence. bathroom, which was something very unusual.
“I was editor and responsible for the preparation of special protection plans in most of these colonies. It started with the first democratic city council of Madrid,” he says. José María Ezquiaga. José María is an architect and urban planner, he also teaches classes. And he knows these colonies perfectly. “The most paradoxical thing is that the majority of inhabitants in them, already owners, wanted to maintain their lifestyle… it is a privilege to be able to live like in a town but in the middle of the city. It was something valued, the economic issue was not the most decisive thing, and the architects also considered that undoing those colonies would be a historical mutilation. It coincided with the mayorship of a very cultured character, of exquisite sensitivity, as it was. Enrique Tierno Galván“.
Colonies originating from factories, also others originating from cooperatives, in aspects that are not purely labor-related. “These types of colonies linked to companies arise with industrialization, and are caused by the urgent need for labor.” Capture and fix, near the factory. I talk to Sara del Hoyowho has a doctorate in Art History and specializes in industrial heritage. She continues. “There have been them since the 18th century… for example, the famous New Lanark in Scotland, which dates back to 1786, until the mid-20th century, like that Ciudad Pegaso in Madrid, from 1956, for workers of the ENASA company. The first ones to emerge In Spain they are in Catalonia, linked to the Ter and Llobregat rivers and the textile sector.”
So, the objectives… what were they? Sara responds regarding factory-type colonies. “Setting the workforce in a space close to work. It is about meeting the needs of the workers, which also includes their families. So, in addition to accommodation, they had very diverse facilities, such as educational , health, sports or common spaces”. José María continues. “These colonies are different, because they are linked to cooperatives, for example, that carried out promotions for cheap housing. Sometimes all of them were also workers of the same company, but the origin is different. They are, in addition, tests of a housing type rationalist… small essays, far from what there is in Holland or Germany, but it is what we have… You know that, in addition, the Francoism considered rationalist architecture as linked to the Republic, so he stigmatized it.”
Differences between these two types of colonies? Sara answers me. “It will depend on the dates, because in Spain, during the Franco regime, where was the limit between company and State? Perhaps we could talk about different purposes (companies want workers, the State wants to respond to the need for housing) and different procedures , between private and public… but once the factoryWhat has happened to the homes? “It’s another interesting question.”
Pedro says that, sometimes, it was the same workers who built their houses in the neighborhood. It happened, for example, in the Bethlehem Benevolent Colony169 homes that were planned in the mid-20th century. Cost assumed, in two thirds, by the National Housing Institute, Sunday work to raise walls. That’s why they called some of them sundayers… And I ask you about the paradoxes… that these colonies, many of proletarian origin, emerged under the protection of the Cheap Houses Law, have suffered phagocytosis of the urban center. Come on, these are very valuable places today.
“There is everything, because there are 45 neighborhoods in Madrid with protection, imagine,” he says, “some have authentic palaces. Look at the neighborhood Metropolitan Parkwhich was one of the first real estate creations in the style of what La Finca could be today, where the soccer players and all these. But there are also colonies in the south that maintain their essence and modesty. Although they have revalued, of course, especially after the pandemic. It’s funny, before, about these houses, it was said that they had too much light, that they looked like sanatoriums, look at the mentality, and now… But think that some are not bargains, eh, there are those that need updating, there are those without insulation Today, when energy efficiency is sought so much, it generates a huge expense. “And they have additional problems… for example, how to manage cars in the colonies, because they are from a time when each family had one, not several as is the case today.”
And, Pedro… is there in the colonies, in La Socialista, a more neighborhood, more village life? Life more, so to speak, as we remember it from our childhood. “Today we do everything more behind closed doors. And there are neighborhoods, a sign of the times, where there is too much security… very high walls, cameras, the feeling that you are not welcome… And it is uncomfortable. But I also know that there are colonies with a chat to communicate, for example. And I know, because I have seen it, that younger people take out their tables and sit outside like we did before. There are also colonies with their own festivities, or common buildings, like this one. from La Socialista, which has the Casinillo, and it is a space of connection and union for everyone.”
The Casino.
There was a draw to see who got what. Not all houses were the same. There were small ones (two floors of forty-five meters plus attic, before that was small) or large ones (sixty at each height). They cost 19,602 pesetas, monthly fees of 60 and annual fees adding up to 726. There was a Casino where you didn’t gamble or drink alcohol (that Casinillo we said), there were also schools. Oh, and the streets had names linked to the labor movement, which was the germ and driving force of the whole thing. Then, with “the other”, they changed (with “the other” that cooperative was declared illegal, after the war many of its inhabitants, many of those who had a home there, in La Socialista, lost that property. Because they were marked, because they were to exile). But it is worth remembering those first names.
Today they are named after flowers, which is not a bad thing either.
(Although it relies on an avenue with a name as unsocial as Alfonso XIII…what would Pablo Iglesias think, alas).
As for the protection mechanisms… or to what extent we can consider these colonies as “works of art” worthy of such a figure. “Well, there’s everything,” Sara tells me about the company colonies. “Think that some have been separated from the center, because being the periphery they have been transformed into polygons. Also in others, associations and groups have been organized that seek to protect their spaces, of course. And then there are up to three colonies, two in Barcelona and one in Alicante, included in the National Industrial Heritage Plan”. They are the Colonia Sedó, the Llobregat Colonies and the Santa Eulalia Colonyin case you are interested… José María also speaks from theory. “Not all of them have the same protection, although they are all considered colonies of single-family homes. Some cannot increase the volume, they cannot eliminate their characteristic roofs, they must preserve their historical air. Inside they can modify, but the external appearance has to be maintained. “.
Pedro refers to specific cases in Madrid. “The first democratic local government, with a team of young, open architects, proposed a pact to the neighbors: they allowed some things (a basement, a basement) in exchange for maintaining the characteristics of these sites, such as balustrades, doors, windows… You can touch everything except the exterior structure, façade. In theory, because then you see things, of course, people who break the law and do what they want.”
It was June 30, 1929.
When they inaugurated La Socialista, I say.
It was June 30, 1929, and there was a big party. Buses from the Plaza de Santa Bárbara to the Garden City, speeches by comrades, also regional songs (Galician, which is very lively), pilgrimages, organs and sweet wine idling, although the latter is to be assumed.
But I highly assume it.
It was in 1929. And there it is still.
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