Calle de Benigno Soto
It recalls Benigno Soto, a Galician maker of braid and trimmings to whom the neighbours dedicated the street after his death in 1892.
Behind the name is a manufacturer. Benigno Soto, a Galician settled in Madrid, built here a factory of cords and trimmings, the fine craft of braiding cords, tassels, braid and fringes for uniforms, chasubles and curtains. He opened it on 25 November 1889 with a party he paid for himself for the neighbourhood, when the area was barely built up.
These were the fields of El Pradillo, north of the Count of Polentinos’s estate, in the outlying district growing as La Prosperidad. The factory brought wages and activity to an almost rural spot, and when Soto died, on 16 September 1892, it was the neighbours themselves who asked that one of the streets bear his surname.
In 1987 a municipal ruling split La Prosperidad in two and this stretch fell within the new Ciudad Jardín neighbourhood. Today Benigno Soto is a short street of just over 160 metres.