Calle de Tomás López
The street takes its name from Tomás López de Vargas Machuca (Madrid, 1730–1802), an Enlightenment geographer and cartographer who by Royal Decree of 20 February 1770 gained the title of “geographer of His Majesty’s dominions” under Charles III. He published more than two hundred maps and posthumously issued the Atlas geográfico de España (1804). The street lies within the grid of the Salamanca Ensanche, laid out from 1860 to the plan of Carlos María de Castro.
Tomás López was born in Madrid in 1730 and studied mathematics at the Colegio Imperial. His talent caught the attention of the Marquis of la Ensenada, who in 1752 funded a grant for him to train in Paris. There he stayed until 1760, learning the craft alongside Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville, geographer to the king of France.
Back in Madrid, the craft became an office: by Royal Decree of 1770 he was named “geographer of His Majesty’s dominions,” and in 1795 he took charge of the Geographic Cabinet of the Secretariat of State. For four decades he drew more than two hundred maps of provinces, kingdoms and overseas territories. His mark on the city itself remained in the Plano geométrico de Madrid of 1785, dedicated to Charles III.
The monumental Atlas geográfico de España, of 102 plates, was published by his sons in 1804, the father already dead. He died in 1802 on calle de Atocha.