Calle de Juan de Olías

The street received its name on October 11, 1875, when Cuatro Caminos was still open ground north of Madrid, dotted with the first low houses of a working-class fringe. Who Juan de Olías was has not survived: there is no record of whether he was a real person, a family surname, or simply the owner of the lots then being parceled out between Bravo Murillo and the future Infanta Mercedes. Some have tried to link the name to the marquisate of Olías, but nothing ties that title to this street. The neighborhood did leave its own mark. At number 11, for decades, ran a reform school for minors, the Concepción Arenal, named after the thinker and reformer who devoted her life to prisons and charity. Where a trade was once taught to wayward boys there are now storage units.