Calle Celindas

The mock orange is a shrub with white flowers that smell of orange blossom, which has also earned it the name of false jasmine. It blooms from late April to mid-June, takes root easily and grows fast, virtues that made it common in Spanish gardens from the 19th century onward. The street’s name springs from an urban experiment. Around 1919, over the former grounds of Chamartín de la Rosa, a cooperative built an estate of low houses inspired by the English garden cities, and gave the new streets the names of flowers. Alongside Celindas stood Narcisos, Alhelíes, Santoninas and Jacintos, a small herbarium traced on the map. Today the Hispanoamérica neighbourhood surrounds them with apartment blocks, but the bunch of flower-named streets is still in its place.