I remember when I was a child and my mum would invite me to go with her to downtown Porto. Honestly, back then, I would prefer to go out for shopping or any other place instead of downtown Porto. When my mum asked me why, I would tell her that everything there seemed old, and it was not so usual to find fashionable streets there. Obviously, we had some exceptions, like 31 de Janeiro street downtown, where it was possible to find some great shops and the street was crowded.

This street, located between the S. Ildefonso church and S. Bento train station, is named after “31 de Janeiro (January 31st)”, the first revolutionary movement that was launched with the aim to bring a republican regime to Portugal. Nowadays the old has become classic and it’s possible to find people everywhere in the historic Porto centre, but recently the most emblematic commercial establishments of Rua 31st Janeiro suffered a progressive closure. Here, the old hasn’t become classic, and it seems that the street needs to be renewed. But I keep my memories and sometimes I like to visit this street where is still possible to combine the traditional houses from Porto with a great nice view of Clerigos tower.