Poble Sec Is Not Eixample. That’s the Point.
I moved to Poble Sec from Eixample eighteen months ago when my rent went up for the second time. I told myself it was a compromise. Within six weeks I understood that it wasn’t.
Poble Sec is the neighbourhood on the south side of Montjuïc, squeezed between the hill and the Parallel — the old theatre and cabaret street that connected the workers’ neighbourhoods to the Rambla before the Rambla became what it is now. It doesn’t appear on most Barcelona tourist itineraries. It doesn’t particularly want to.
Carrer de Blai (Carrer de Blai, Poble Sec) is the street everyone mentions, and it earns the mention. Pintxos bars running the length of the street, €1–1.50 per piece, busy from around seven until midnight. It’s the most efficient food street in Barcelona in terms of calories per euro and conversation per square metre. Go on a Tuesday or Wednesday if you want to actually be able to move. Bar Calders (barcalders.com — Parlament 25, Sant Antoni) is a ten-minute walk and is the kind of bar that makes you want to stay in the neighbourhood indefinitely.
Montjuïc itself (Montjuïc, Barcelona) is the thing Poble Sec residents have that Eixample doesn’t. The hill is walkable from the neighbourhood — twenty minutes up to the gardens, another fifteen to the castle. On a clear day you can see the harbour and the sea and the city laid out below in a way that makes you understand the geography properly. The Jardí Botànic (museuciencies.cat/jardibotanic — Doctor Font i Quer 2, Montjuïc) is on the hill and has free entry on Sunday afternoons after 15:00. I go most weekends when I don’t have other plans, which is something I would not have said about any park in Eixample.
The thing I tell people about Poble Sec: it’s the neighbourhood where you understand what Barcelona is like to live in rather than visit. The difference is real and it takes about two weeks to feel.
