Around Metaxourgeio

Last week we went to Metaxourgeio, a district in Athens, to see an exhibition at the Athens  Municipal Art gallery which is situated there. Metaxourgeio means Silk Factory named after the factory that was built there in the early 19th century. 

Metaxourgeio is built on the Dimosio Sima, the ancient cemetery of eminent Athenians. For centuries, the area was largely rural and stood on the outskirts of the city. The building of the factory turned the neighbourhood into a thriving working class neighbourhood, housing many craftspeople,  and small-business owners. The population of the area continued to grow during the course of the early 20th century, maintaining its working-class profile, until a period of abandonment baginning in the 1970s. By 2001, the population of the neighbourhood had stabilised, largely due to an influx of immigrants as well as upper middle-class residents who found the area's low rents and proximity to high-profile meeting places attractive. It is now acquiring a reputation as an artistic and fashionable neighbourhood due to the opening of many art galleries, museums and trendy restaurants and cafes.

The area is in the process of gentrification and at the moment it's a mixture of derelict, falling down buildings and trendy, fashionable places. But, it has come a long way from 2013 when I wrote about it here - that was during the period of austerity in Greece, but the contrast is still quite striking.

The second building of the gallery complex

We started at Avdi square, which is where the gallery is and after the exhibition we started wandering around.

Avdi square is the centre of the district, and it's too large to fit into one photograph, so I am posting bits of it

many cafes and restaurants all around it, with lots of outdoors seating - it must be lovely here in the summer

this is the outdoor seeating of the Rooster's Egg, a taverna, which is covered up for the winter





The main building of the taverna

and this is the second one - a derelict building

and this is what they have done with it

Near the square is this modern housing complex

which is quite large

a courtyard in the middle as seen through the gate

there is a lot of street art in the area

Some of the old houses have been done up

while others are falling apart, waiting for removation

a gorgeous Art Deco building

Lots of political posters around. I love this one: 'Great Place to Get Fired' while the Greek  translates: 'The Best Place for Revenge Firings'

Part of China Town is in Metaxourgeio, so there's lots of shops and warehouses

A wasteground, a dumping place, and at the end of it

an iNo mural - I love his work and it's all over Athens (I always post the ones I see, so if you want to see morte, use the 'search this blog' facility on the right, there's too many for me to post the links)

a pedestrianised narrow street

with a building of luxury suites

with a concierge

and across the road, a house with a mural painted on it

and another

and a wreck - such a contrast

and in the mist of it all, an olive oil dispensing machine - I have never seen one of those before

Further down the street

a shop selling vintage furniture - I covet this Isamu Noguchi coffee table!

We turned into this side street because I wanted to look at that gorgeous building at the cross roads

absolutely gorgeous

a lot of the narrow side streets are pedestrianised (with the exception of cars for residents) just like in Exarheia

Some of the shops display theatre posters

alternative or weird? take your pick

A jazz club

The Red Bookshop

This is too gorgeous a building to be allowed to fall apart

'Make Rugs not War' - this is a rug repair shop, believe it or not

We reached the end of Metaxourgeio and the beginning of Keramikos

admired another iNo mural and then we retraced our steps

back to The Cockerel's Egg as we fancied having lunch there. We chose the dilapidated building rather than the main one

where we had some company. I don't know how this little sparrow got in, but it loved flying around and we liked having it there

soon the large table that we had seen all set up during our earlier visit before opening up

started filling up, as 25 people arrived most in fancy dress, celebrating  Apokries, the Carnival

I liked the witch best

and the priest, who came to say hello.

This was our first time in this taverna and we liked the food a lot, so we will be going back.