Calle de Andrés Borrego

Between calle de la Luna and calle del Pez, in old Malasaña, runs a minor artery that before honouring a journalist smelled of fresh-baked bread. Its old name, Panaderos (Bakers), recalls the bread market that gathered here in the 17th and 18th centuries, supplied by the ovens of the neighbouring Villanueva quarter. The place-name already appears fixed on Texeira’s 1656 map. Andrés Borrego Moreno (Málaga, 1802 – Madrid, 1891) was one of the founders of the modern liberal press. Exiled for backing Riego, in Paris he wrote for Le Temps and founded clandestine papers smuggled into the Peninsula. Back in Spain he brought out El Español in 1835, the most influential daily of its decade, modelled on the London Times, with shorthand writers in Parliament and foreign correspondents; Larra and Espronceda passed through its newsroom. He died poor, writing to eat. The council let four years pass after his death before renaming the street in 1895. Why it chose Panaderos in particular is a mystery: nothing tied Borrego to this street.