Calle de Álvarez de Baena

Before carrying this name, the street was called calle de la Exposición, after the palace built between 1881 and 1887 nearby to host the National Exhibition of Industry and the Arts. That building ended up changing its purpose —⁠today it houses the National Museum of Natural Sciences and the School of Industrial Engineers⁠— and the street lost its original name to recall a chronicler of the city. José Antonio Álvarez de Baena was born in Madrid around the middle of the 18th century and devoted his pen to the city. Between 1789 and 1791 he published his major work, Hijos de Madrid, ilustres en santidad, dignidad, armas, ciencias y artes, a biographical compendium of the Madrileños who had left a mark. He died at the end of the century, on a date that is not documented. The street is short, barely a stretch tucked between María de Molina and Pedro de Valdivia, in the heart of the El Viso neighbourhood.