Calle de los Libreros

Calle de los Libreros climbs barely two hundred metres from the Gran Vía to calle de la Estrella, in the Universidad neighbourhood. On Teixeira’s map (1656) it appears as Calle del Pozo (Well Street): there really was a well here, when this corner of Madrid was still open ground. The 19th century brought it a bad name. In 1893 it was renamed Calle de Ceres, and the name suited it so ill that people joked Venus would have fitted better: it was one of the city centre’s streets of prostitution. Valle-Inclán captured its atmosphere in Luces de Bohemia. The trade arrived before the name. Josefa Borrás, “doña Pepita”, moved her used-book business here when the Gran Vía left her without premises; she gave students credit when they were short of money, and from her counter learned those who later opened half a dozen bookshops. In its best years, between the fifties and the nineties, the street had more than a dozen at once. In 1943, said to be at Pío Baroja’s urging, the council at last heeded the street’s use and named it de los Libreros.