Calle de los Cuatro Amigos

Four friends give their name to this short street in the Almenara neighbourhood, in what locals still call la Ventilla. Who they were, whether they existed, or whether the number is just a whim of the street planners, no one knows. Calle de los Cuatro Amigos was born in the outskirts of Madrid. For decades la Ventilla was a district of rag shops, wasteland and shacks north of Cuatro Caminos, built by the poor who came to the city looking for work. Many of its streets were laid out quickly, with names drawn from local speech rather than any decree, and rarely was there a record of who proposed them. That may have been the fate of the four friends: a neighbourhood nickname that stuck. The surroundings no longer resemble those days. The redevelopment of la Ventilla tore down the last slum housing and raised new blocks and a park where the low houses once crowded together. The name, however, remains on the sign, with nothing beyond the street number.