el Cabanyal - el Canyamelar, Valencia

El Cabanyal–El Canyamelar is an old fishing neighbourhood beside Valencia’s sea, close to La Malvarrosa. Its unusual street grid preserves the alignment of earlier huts that once ran parallel with the shore. From 1837 to 1897, this community formed an independent municipality called Pueblo Nuevo del Mar.

In 2020, The Guardian placed El Cabanyal as the third coolest neighbourhood in Europe. That reputation sits beside a difficult recent history. The neighbourhood is a Heritage site of Cultural Interest, and in 1998 the local government approved a scheme to extend Blasco Ibáñez avenue to the sea, threatening the demolition of 1,651 houses.

The civic movement Salvem el Cabanyal resisted the plan, winning important court decisions. Although bulldozers were ultimately stopped, about 125 houses were demolished, including 28 with the distinctive tile treatment associated with this neighbourhood. In 2013, a survey catalogued 272 tiled houses, with 139 protected and 43 still marked for demolition.

After the local elections of 2015, the new council halted the demolition and avenue-extension plans, choosing neighbourhood rehabilitation and expanded public services instead. As you walk along the grid of streets, the surviving tiled façades make that struggle visible in the fabric of the district.